Joan Didion, a journalist, novelist, essayist, and screenwriter, was widely regarded as America鈥檚 storyteller, narrating the dialogue of literature, politics, culture, and loss. Her 1961 essay 鈥極n Self-Respect鈥�, published in Vogue magazine, was a groundbreaking declaration of women鈥檚 independence during a time of societal change.
Her seminal 1979 work, The White Album, captured America's legacy from the tumultuous events of the 1960s. In 2005, her award-winning memoir The Year of Magical Thinking grapples with the wrenching loss of her husband, literary giant, John Gregory Dunne. Her subsequent book, Blue Nights, chronicled the illness and sudden death of her adopted daughter, Quintana, at the age of 39. When Didion passed away in 2021 at the age of 87, it marked not only the loss of a profound voice who shaped our understanding of the world but also the mourning of a generation of writers she had inspired, me included.
In 2023, the New York Public Library announced it had acquired the personal papers of Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunne. This collection includes manuscripts, letters, photos, and all sorts of paraphernalia from their personal and professional lives. With no direct heirs, Didion鈥檚 estate, overseen by the Didion Dunne Literary Trust, chose to donate the archive, ensuring their legacy would be preserved for future generations.
Among the materials discovered after Didion鈥檚 death was something unexpected: a private journal she started in December 1999, during sessions with a psychiatrist. These were two letters to her husband, Dunne, filled with raw honesty about her struggles with alcohol, guilt, anxiety and depression. She also wrote about her troubled relationship with their adopted daughter, Quintana, childhood memories, and questioned the meaning and legacy of her life.
In March 2025, this personal diary, edited and arranged chronologically with a few added footnotes, was published under the title Notes to John, raising important questions about the ethics of publishing work Joan Didion may never have intended to share. As an avid reader of her work, I found Notes to John lacks the polish and precision I have come to associate with Didion鈥檚 writing.
As a trainee counsellor, developing a respectful relationship with the principles of confidentiality, this book has left me feeling uneasy in my role as a practitioner. 网爆门鈥檚 Ethical Framework makes it clear that a counsellor鈥檚 duty to keep things confidential does not end when a client passes away, as their notes may be requested under law. It is a reminder of just how sacred personal diaries are, no matter how much time has passed. So, reading something as private as Notes to John, with no explicit consent given for wider publication, crosses a boundary I am still learning to respect in my training. And while the book lover in me is undeniably nosy and even a little excited, as a human being and a future counselling practitioner, I honestly wish I did not have the opportunity to read it at all.
