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A couple of years ago, the New York Public Library purchased the late Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne’s archive, announcing that, once processed, the collection would be available to anyone with a library card at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue.
The time has finally come—on March 26, the library will make the archive, comprised of a total of 336 boxes, publicly available.
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“Few writers have shaped the world of letters as profoundly as Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne,” said Brent Reidy, Andrew W. Mellon Director of the Research Libraries at the New York Public Library, in an official statement. “The opening of this archive provides scholars and writers alike with an unparalleled opportunity to explore Didion and Dunne’s intellectual journeys, collaborations, and enduring impact on literature, journalism and criticism.”
Housed in the Manuscripts and Archives Division in the main building of the library, the collection includes a ton of artifacts, including notes and typescripts from Didion's interviews to Dunne’s correspondence with Brandon Teena’s murderer, a relationship that led to a famous piece in the New Yorker that was then adapted into the Oscar-winning film Boys Don't Cry, starring Hilary Swank.
There's more: annotated transcriptions of “confessions” from the Central Park jogger case that were later revealed to be false (Didion wrote an essay in the New York Review of Books about the trial, one of the first to cast doubt on the situation), reference materials for the writers’ various works of literature and, according to a press release, “extensive records of menus, recipes, guests lists, setup notes and handmade cookbooks documenting the couple's legendary dinner parties with guests like Warren Beatty and Annie Leibovitz.”
Didion and Dunne shaped American culture both through their written words and their much chronicled relationship. After two years of preparation, the library hopes to present the public with an authentic image of the couple, honoring their legacy on and off the page, indirectly allowing New Yorkers to step into a version of the late duo’s world.