SOUTH AND WEST: FROM A NOTEBOOK

From one of the most important chroniclers of our time come two extended excerpts from her never-before-seen notebooks – writings that offer an illuminating glimpse into the mind and process of a legendary writer.Joan Didion has always kept notebooks: of overheard dialogue observations interviews drafts of essays and articlesHere is one such draft that traces a road trip she took with her husband John Gregory Dunne in June 1970 through Louisiana Mississippi and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures describes motels diners a deserted reptile farm a visit with Walker Percy a ladies' brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters' Convention. She writes about the stifling heat the almost viscous pace of life the sulfurous light and the preoccupation with race class and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through.And from a different notebook: the California Notes that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city its social hierarchy the Hearsts and her own upbringing in Sacramento. Here too is the beginning of her thinking about the West its landscape the western women who were heroic for her and her own lineage.