The Joan Didion Collection - (Mixed Media Product)

Book Synopsis

The ultimate Didion: all 17 of her major works of fiction, journalism, and memoir together for the first time in a 3-volume boxed set

"Essential." --Esquire

In 1968, a collection of reportage appeared that was unlike anything seen before, remarkable in its literary aspiration and a milestone in what would become known as the New Journalism. A series of wickedly incisive portraits of California and its people--from fading stars to homicidal housewives to drug-addled hippies--Slouching Towards Bethlehem was a sensation, signaling the arrival of a major writer. It attracted not only readers but devotees, and Joan Didion became more than just a celebrated author, she became an icon for the age. Now, for the first time, all her best-known and most enduring works are gathered together in a career-spanning 3-volume Library of America boxed set.

THE JOAN DIDION COLLECTION includes:

I. The 1960s & 70s
Run River
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Play It As It Lays
A Book of Common Prayer
The White Album

II. The 1980s & 90s
Salvador
Democracy
Miami
After Henry
The Last Thing He Wanted

III. Memoirs & Later Writings
Political Fictions
Fixed Ideas
Where I Was From
The Year of Magical Thinking (memoir and play)
Blue Nights
South and West

Edited by David L. Ulin, each volume contains a textual essay, a chronology of Didion's life and career, and detailed notes.

Review Quotes

"Since her death, Joan Didion's sterling reputation has only grown. This year alone saw another crop of Didion-related volumes--including Lil Anorak's highly entertaining, Didion & Babitz--but the proof is in Didion's oeuvre, which is beautifully presented in this comprehensive box set from the Library of America. Essential." --Alex Belth, Esquire

"The Joan Didion Collection is a lovely gift for readers. It could be, however, a dangerous thing to
give a writer. A random selection of these 2,600-odd pages might cause a spasm of imitation, which is almost certain to turn out badly." --Chris Barsanti, Rain Taxi

About the Author

Joan Didion (1934-2021) was one of the most distinct American literary voices of the last century, the author of five novels and nine books of nonfiction, including Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, Play It As It Lays, and the New York Times best sellers The Year of Magical Thinking, Blue Nights, and South and West. She was the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Book Award for Nonfiction and the National Book Foundations' Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

David L. Ulin is the author or editor of numerous books, including Sidewalking: Coming to Terms with Los Angeles; the Library of America's Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology, which won a California Book Award; and The Lost Art of Reading: Books and Resistance in a Troubled Time. The former book editor and book critic of the Los Angeles Times, he teaches at the University of Southern California.