Joan Didion: What She Means

Assembled chronologically, the book showcases Didion's enchantment with the two coasts that made her into the person the world knows her as. Didion and her late husband moved from New York to Los Angeles in 1964, where they worked as highly successful screenwriters, producing scripts for 1971's The Panic in Needle Park and 1976's A Star Is Born, among other works, before returning to New York 20 years later.

The book includes over 50 artists ranging from Brice Marden and Ed Ruscha to Betye Saar, and Vija Clemins with works in all mediums including painting, ephemera, photography, sculpture, video and film. Also included are three previously uncollected texts by Didion: “In Praise of Unhung Wreaths and Love” (1969); a much-excerpted 1975 commencement address at UC Riverside; and “The Year of Hoping for Stage Magic” (2007).