The 100-Year Life Health Education and Government
In The Year of Magical Thinking, the late Joan Didion recounts the searing aftermath of the death of her husband John Gregory Dunne. In April, a diary that she addressed to him will be published.
The book comprises post-therapy notes that detail conversations from the sessions about Didion’s mental health struggles and other elements of her life.
Didion was always remarkably open about her close relationships and bouts of mental illness, but she never mentioned the diary to her agent nor made efforts to have it published when she was alive.
Defenders will point out that she carefully stored the notes, perhaps knowing they might see the light of day. But that doesn’t amount to consent.
Didion will join Tina Turner, Ernest Hemingway, Philip Larkin and Gabriel García Márquez in having her artistic legacy shaped by a work she wasn’t around to give permission to publish.
