This guide explores the Los Angeles of Joan Didion, one of America's most celebrated writers. It traces Didion's time in the city from 1964, when she and husband John Gregory Dunne left New York, to 1988, when they moved back east.
The tour highlights over 30 locations significant to Didion's life and work, including homes, workplaces, and settings from her essays and novels. It begins at the couple's first California residence in Rancho Palos Verdes and includes their Franklin Avenue house in Hollywood, where they hosted numerous parties and raised their adopted daughter Quintana Roo.
Key sites include Sunset Sound Recorders, where Didion attempted to interview Jim Morrison; the former Herald Examiner building; and Saint John's Hospital, where Didion underwent psychiatric evaluation in 1968. The tour also covers locations related to the Manson Family murders, which Didion wrote about extensively.
The guide explores Didion's complex relationship with Los Angeles, from her sharp observations of its social scene to her fear of freeway driving. It includes quotations from her works and anecdotes about her interactions with Hollywood figures like Harrison Ford and Christopher Isherwood.
Readers will discover how Didion's experiences in Los Angeles shaped her writing, from her early magazine articles to seminal works like "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" and "The White Album." The tour also touches on her screenwriting career with Dunne and their time living in Malibu.
This literary journey offers insight into Didion's perspective on Los Angeles during a turbulent period in the city's history, illuminating the places that influenced one of America's most distinctive literary voices.