The cover image of Joan Didion: The 1960s and 70s, a new anthology from the Library of America, is a photograph of a cluster of people on the street in hippie-era San Francisco. Most face away from the camera, looking at something out of frame. Didion stands apart; back to the crowd, she looks directly at the viewer, smiling slightly. Over her workaday reporter attire, she’s wound a chic scarf.
The picture almost perfectly captures Didion’s enduring appeal as a writer, the flinty essayist observing the zeitgeist at a deliberate remove, as well as the Didion brand: the aloof, sunglasses-wearing “Literary Sad Woman” whose image has graced many a tote bag.
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