A glimpse into the newly opened archive of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne

About a year after Joan Didion’s death in 2021, the New York Public Library (NYPL) began the process to become the stewards of the joint archive of Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne which includes manuscripts, photographs, dinner party guest lists, letters and other personal items.

There’s the 1964 “small note with big news” from Dunne to Jason McManus at Time Magazine. “I’m getting married. The date: January 30; the girl: Joan Didion; the place: Carmel, Cal.,” he wrote before concluding, “Anyway, instead of being dragged kicking and screaming to the altar, I’m looking forward to marriage with a great deal of anticipation. Music Maestro, please.”

The archive opens on Wednesday, March 26, and is littered with many gems like this.

“I remember the first time I got to go see these materials being really blown away,” said Julie Golia, associate director of the Rayner Special Collections Wing and Charles J. Liebman senior curator of Manuscripts at the NYPL. “Not only by the scope of the professional documentation…but also the really personal materials.”

Didion and Dunne married in 1964 becoming lifelong collaborators across a range of ambitious projects including at least two dozen screenplays. The body of memory offers a glimpse into the pair’s private life and creative process.

Golia breaks down the collection into four parts beginning with Didion’s research materials and correspondence, followed by Dunne’s projects and “the mountains of materials underneath those books and articles.” A third section covers the two authors’ collaborative work on screenplays and the final and most varied one centers on their personal lives.

“Diverse materials, a lot of everything from awards to baby books to all of their personal correspondence,” Golia said.

Dunne died in 2003 at the age of 71. Years later, Didion reminisced about the early days of their relationship and the trust built as the other’s “first reader.”

She continued to write until her death at age 87, even after the loss of their daughter Quintana Roo, less than two years after her husband’s death.

In addition to her famed essays and novels, Didion was known for hosting elaborate dinner parties, details of which are also on display at the NYPL including menus, seating charts and handmade cookbooks.

The archive is open to anyone with a NYPL library card. After extensive preparation, the NYPL hopes to offer new insights to the enigmatic couple and their many pursuits.

“There are so many entry points into this collection,” Golia said. “We do see this collection spurring a golden age of scholarship about both of their work but also about broader subjects, about New Journalism [an American literary movement developed in the 1960s and 1970s], about the role of women in popular culture in the 20th century, about the true crime stories that John [Gregory] Dunne became known for… the opportunities are endless.”

The digital version of this story was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi.