Thirteen blank notebooks. All with bookplates from the Library of Joan Didion.

Smallest 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 in., largest 6 3/4 x 5 in.

Note: Beginning in childhood, Joan Didion took notes about her observations in small notebooks, filling hundreds of them over the years. She wrote about her notebooks in Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968), saying she felt compelled to write things down as early as the age of five. "Why did I write it down? In order to remember, of course, but exactly what was it I wanted to remember?...The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one,..."  Later in the essay she writes "I sometimes delude myself about why I keep a notebook, imagine that some thrifty virtue derives from preserving everything observed. See enough and write it down, I tell myself, and then some morning when the world seems drained of wonder...on that bankrupt morning I will simply open my notebook and there it will all be..."

This group of blank notebooks comes from one of the desks in her apartment. See also lots 122 and 123.

Some with wear consistent with age. Otherwise all in good condition.Not withstanding this report or any discussion concerning condition of a lot, all lots are offered and sold "as is" in accordance with our conditions of sale.