A posthumously assembled pair of Didion's working notebooks: a 1970 road-trip diary through the Deep South's small towns and heat, and a shorter, unfinished 1976 notebook on California reckoning with the Patty Hearst trial.
Books mentioned in South and West (8)
The Birds of America by John James Audubon: Chapter epigraph: —JOHN JAMES AUDUBON, The Birds of America, 1830 / “Would that I could represent to you the dangerous nature of the ground, its oozing, spongy, and miry disposition…”
John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benét: Chapter epigraph: —STEPHEN VINCENT BENÉT, John Brown’s Body / “…the purple dream / Of the America we have not been…”
The Sisters-in-Law by Gertrude Atherton: “The beds of Parma violets at the Atherton house dissolve effortlessly into the beds of Parma violets at Maria Ballinger-Groome Abbott’s house in Atherton’s The Sisters-in-Law.”
Where I Was From by Joan Didion: “This didn’t lead to my writing the piece, but eventually it led to—years later—Where I Was From (2003).”
The Nashville Sound by Paul Hemphill: ““The Nashville Sound in yet?” “Still on order,” the librarian said.”
The World of Fashion: ““How ’bout The World of Fashion?” “Still out.” “Put me down on the waiting list for The World of Fashion.””
The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles: “Flagged by the verifying agent as a genuine narrative reference not scored highly enough by the detector to appear as its own top-200 candidate.”
Sleeping Fires by Gertrude Atherton: “Flagged by the verifying agent as a genuine narrative reference (alongside The Sisters-in-Law) not scored highly enough by the detector to appear as its own top-200 candidate.”