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Joan Didion
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Collected Essays: Slouching Towards Bethlehem, The White Album, and After Henry Kindle Edition

by Joan Didion (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 176 ratings
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Three essential works that redefined the art of journalism by “one of our sharpest and most trustworthy cultural observers” (The New York Times).
 
In these masterpieces of razor-sharp reportage, the National Book Award–winning and New York Times–bestselling author proves herself one of the premier essayists of the twentieth century, “an articulate witness to the most stubborn and intractable truths of our time” (Joyce Carol Oates,  The New York Times Book Review).
 
Slouching Towards Bethlehem: America in the 1960s—a pivotal era of social change and generational divide. Here is Joan Didion on the “misplaced children” of Haight-Ashbury as well as John Wayne in Hollywood; folk singer Joan Baez and reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes; the extremes of both Death Valley and Las Vegas. Named to Time magazine’s list of the one hundred best and most influential nonfiction books, this is “a rare display of some of the best prose written today in this country” (The New York Times Book Review).
 
The White Album: A New York Times bestseller, this landmark essay collection confronts the dark aftermath of the 1960s. From a jailhouse visit to Huey Newton, cofounder of the Black Panther Party, to a recording session with The Doors, from the culture of shopping malls to the contradictions of the women’s movement, Joan Didion captures the paranoia and absurdity of the era with irony and insight. And in the iconic title essay, she documents her uneasy state of mind during the years leading up to and following the Manson murders—a terrifying crime that, in her memory, surprised no one.
 
After Henry: Whether reporting on a Hollywood murder or the “sideshows” of foreign wars, Joan Didion crystalizes her reputation as a brilliant essayist. Highlights include a portrait of the White House under the Reagans, two “actors on location”; an unexpected meditation on the Patty Hearst case; and an exposé on the racial divisions and class fault lines of New York City following the rape of the Central Park jogger. An indispensable collection from a writer on whom we can rely “to get the story straight” (Los Angeles Times).
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  1. Print length
    665 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  5. Publication date
    March 6, 2018
  6. File size
    7844 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Arriving one year after the Summer of Love, the book, and its title essay, firmly punctured the pervasive myths about the counterculture. . . . One of the most compelling books about 1960s America.” —Time on Slouching Towards Bethlehem
 
“[The White Album] Demonstrates Didion’s range as an essayist, her ability not only to portray the extraordinary and apocalyptic, but also to appreciate the ordinary.” —The New York Times
 
“Cool, precise, and ironic . . . [Didion] is an expert geographer of the landscape of American public culture.” —The New York Times Book Review on After Henry

About the Author

Joan Didion is the author of five novels, ten works of nonfiction, and a play. Her books include Slouching Towards Bethlehem, Play It as It Lays, The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking, and, most recently, South and West: From a Notebook. Born in Sacramento, California, she lives in New York City.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07B3QHCTZ
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (March 6, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 6, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 7844 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 665 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 176 ratings

About the author

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Joan Didion

Joan Didion

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Joan Didion was born in Sacramento in 1934 and graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956. After graduation, Didion moved to New York and began working for Vogue, which led to her career as a journalist and writer. Didion published her first novel, Run River, in 1963. Didion’s other novels include A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Democracy (1984), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996).

Didion’s first volume of essays, Slouching Towards Bethlehem, was published in 1968, and her second, The White Album, was published in 1979. Her nonfiction works include Salvador (1983), Miami (1987), After Henry (1992), Political Fictions (2001), Where I Was From (2003), We Tell Ourselves Stories In Order to Live (2006), Blue Nights (2011), South and West (2017) and Let Me Tell You What I Mean (2021). Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2005.

In 2005, Didion was awarded the American Academy of Arts & Letters Gold Medal in Criticism and Belles Letters. In 2007, she was awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. A portion of National Book Foundation citation read: "An incisive observer of American politics and culture for more than forty-five years, Didion’s distinctive blend of spare, elegant prose and fierce intelligence has earned her books a place in the canon of American literature as well as the admiration of generations of writers and journalists.” In 2013, she was awarded a National Medal of Arts and Humanities by President Barack Obama, and the PEN Center USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Didion said of her writing: "I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means.” She died in December 2021.

For more information, visit www.joandidion.org

Photo credit: Brigitte Lacombe

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
176 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

jjs
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2018
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Joan Didion is one of my favorite authors and I like that this collection has many of my favorites
5 people found this helpful
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Lori R.
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic!
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2018
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Everyone should read or reread these.
4 people found this helpful
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Michigan BADMO
5.0 out of 5 stars This is great
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2022
She was basically a genius, and it is so interesting to get her commentary on places and things from 50 years ago. I really loved these essays.
3 people found this helpful
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David L. Parnell
5.0 out of 5 stars Just started reading this erudite author's insighhts into love, life, culture, modern society
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2021
Verified Purchase
Just started reading this erudite author's insights into love, life, culture, modern society, family, and the remarkable, expressive use of the English language to communicate such perspectives. I see I missed all those years where I might have grown a bit intellectually here in South Carolina. Still, it's a blessing to find such a rose in this garden of humanity and my mature stage of life only appreciates her gift and profound observations and pondering all the more. Great author's reveal the expansive horizons of this thing we call LIFE...whether you are looking back or looking ahead, a collective consciousness leaves one with the warm feeling of awareness of the human experience.
12 people found this helpful
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