Remembering Joan Didion: ‘Her ability to operate outside of herself was unparalleled’

The American author was not only brilliant but also generous and kind to younger writers, writes Emma BrockesThere is that famous photo of Joan Didion, taken in Malibu in 1976, in which she leans on a deck overlooking the beach, cigarette in hand, scotch glass at her elbow, and regards her family – John Dunne, her husband, and their then 10-year-old daughter, Quintana – through lowered, side-long eyes. Like other iconic photos of Didion from the period, she is at one remove from the group, off to the side and in this case, looking not at the camera but at her family as they look at the camera. It’s the pose Didion perfected, in life as in art, and when news of her death at the age of 87 broke on Thursday, it was a shock to see another frame from that sequence surface online. In it, Didion, eyes fixed forward, smiles broadly at the camera in the conventional style – a rare glimpse behind the persona.The paradox of Didion was not unusual among writers, whose confidence is often born of a million anxieties. But her ability to operate outside herself – to measure the gap between inside and out and slyly mock any effort to conceal it – was unparalleled. She was, famously and by her own account, diffident, brittle, runtish, prone to migraines, afraid of the telephone, and as she wrote in the preface to her 1968 collection Slouching Towards Bethlehem, “bad at interviewing people”, apparent deficits that, in Didion’s hands, were of course precisely what permitted her entry to... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-12-24 18:44:54 UTC ]
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Mourning the Letters That Will No Longer Be Written, and Remembering the Great Ones That Were

A book critic laments the decline in proper correspondence, and recalls the great letters of Ralph Ellison, Jean Rhys, Samuel Beckett and others. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-06-17 09:00:00 UTC ]
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Operations: How the Hearst Media Connecticut Group is Navigating Through the COVID-19 Crisis

Newspapers have endured tremendous change over the past few decades but perhaps no time stands out quite like what we’re Continue reading at Editor & Publisher

[ Editor & Publisher | 2020-06-15 07:00:15 UTC ]
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AAP newswire saved but jobs to be lost in slimmed down operation

A consortium of investors led by former News Corp CEO Peter Tonagh will buy the Australian Associated Press saving up to 95 jobsThe Australian Associated Press Newswire has been saved at the 11th hour by a consortium of investors and philanthropists led by former News Corp chief executive Peter... Continue reading at The Guardian

[ The Guardian | 2020-06-05 06:33:42 UTC ]
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Colleagues Remember Carolyn Reidy

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-05-13 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Wiley signs co-operation agreement with ResearchGate

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-05-07 11:31:25 UTC ]
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How Roxane Gay’s HUNGER Helped Me Write About My Different Ability

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[ Book Riot | 2020-05-06 10:39:34 UTC ]
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Quad Closes Book Printing Operations

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-31 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Former Rights Director Marcella Berger Remembered by Simon & Schuster

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2020-03-19 22:01:05 UTC ]
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A Gay Man Remembers His Awakening, as AIDS Shook His World

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[ The New York Times | 2020-03-15 09:00:05 UTC ]
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PRH Gives NYC Staff Ability to Work from Home

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-03-11 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Swift, Ishiguro, Barnes remember Sonny Mehta at London memorial

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-03-10 00:20:15 UTC ]
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Hundreds Turn Out to Remember Sonny Mehta

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-02-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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A Graphic Novel Remembers Attica

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[ The New York Times | 2020-02-14 20:10:32 UTC ]
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A Graphic Novel Remembers Attica

A friend of an inmate, Big Black, who helped others during the uprising, tells his story in “Stand at Attica.” Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-14 16:05:38 UTC ]
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Surf, schools, critters, comics and the Didion hive: 5 great book events this week

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Remembering Alice Mayhew

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[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-06 00:28:27 UTC ]
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[ Literrary Hub | 2020-02-06 00:28:27 UTC ]
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‘An Editor Can Save You From Yourself’: Remembering Alice Mayhew

Authors describe what it was like to work with the legendary Simon & Schuster editor, who died on Feb. 4. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2020-02-05 18:01:44 UTC ]
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Remembering Ram Dass

The publishing industry mourns Ram Dass, the bestselling author of ‘Be Here Now’ and other books on spirituality, following his recent death at age 88. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2020-01-08 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Scholastic's operating income rises 7% in 2020 second quarter

The Scholastic Corporation has revealed a 7% rise in operating income in the second quarter of the fiscal year, as c.e.o. Richard Robinson said the firm "continued to stand out as the world’s leading children’s book publisher and distributor". Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-12-23 08:45:28 UTC ]
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