Didion and Babitz

Literary legends Joan Didion and Eve Babitz are for some the ultimate avatars of cool women writers. They were also, it turns out, deeply intertwined. In the late 1960s and early ’70s, their distinct styles and worlds collided in Hollywood, where they rubbed elbows with actors, writers, drug dealers, and rock stars in overlapping social circles. Though they ran with the same crowd—and grew close themselves—the women were very different. While Didion became known for her controlled and exacting style, both in her writing and the way she crafted her image, the far wilder Babitz made her chaos plain on the page, calling her own penchant for excess the “squalid overboogie.” Writer Lili Anolik previously explored Babitz’s life in her 2019 book Eve’s Hollywood. In 2021, following Babitz’s death, the author found a trove of Babitz’s unsent letters, including letters to Didion that reveal little-known details about their relationship. Through careful analysis of these revealing missives, the writers’ published work, interviews with their contemporaries, and more in-depth research, Anolik unravels how Didion and Babitz fueled each other to become representatives of “two halves of American womanhood”—and how their personal relationship eventually turned sour.

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