It looks like Joan Didion would qualify as a Notebook Addict of the Week— she left behind at least 38 blank notebooks when she died. Joan Didion’s notebooks are being sold as part of an auction of many of her belongings, including books, artwork, furniture, sunglasses and more.
I’ve written about Joan Didion before– her essay “On Keeping a Notebook” is an essential read, and The White Album and Slouching Towards Bethlehem are books that I’ve revisited many times over the years.
I had no idea what sort of notebooks Joan Didion used– she’s been famously photographed with cigarettes and her Corvette, but I don’t recall ever seeing an image of her holding or using a notebook. But from the auction catalog, it looks like she used Clairefontaine, Moleskine, and some other brands I couldn’t identify. I think I spotted an Emilio Braga notebook in one photo, and some notebooks with blue page edges that could have been made by Alwych.
It will be interesting to see what Joan Didion’s notebooks end up selling for. On the one hand, they are just ordinary blank notebooks, to which “from the library of Joan Didion” bookplates have been affixed– in some cases the bookplate is just stuck on to the shrinkwrap of unopened notebooks. But on the other hand, people are obsessed with Joan Didion and some of her fans would apparently pay money for even a paper clip that she’d touched. And the website for the auction seems to be crashing a bit today, perhaps from an overload of interested shoppers! Can’t say I’m not tempted myself…
Read more about Joan Didion’s notebooks and the rest of the estate sale in this weekend’s New York Times: Joan Didion’s Life in Objects
Oh, they’re blank! When I saw your post on Instagram, I couldn’t believe her notebooks were going to auction at those prices… but I thought they were filled by her! Meh — they’re just ordinary empty notebooks. ;-)
Yes, ones she’d written in would definitely cost a LOT more! It looks like her archives went to UC Berkeley, I wonder if they include notebooks…
It would be fascinating to see some pages from her used notebooks. Any idea what she used to write in them?
I think she wrote notes for her articles, and various other notes and observations, just to have a record of them. You can read the essay “On Keeping a Notebook” online, where she talks about why she keeps notebooks. “Remember what it was to be me: that is always the point.”
Meanwhile, the notebooks pictured are already up to $600 in early online bidding…
I like the look of the red and blue ones to the left in that photo–they look nice and hefty. Wonder what those are.