Lots From A Literary Icon: The Joan Didion Collection On Auction At Stair Galleries

Author Joan Didion had a small collection of pocket-sized rocks and shells. One of America’s most revered writers, Didion was, for most of her life, a celebrated Californian, but for many years she lived in a modest Manhattan apartment. In the New York space she shared with husband John Dunne, until the end of their lives, those rocks and shells lined the living room mantel.

Didion’s rocks and shells, art work, sunglasses, silverware, furniture, books, and other ephemera are currently up for auction on Wednesday, Nov, 16, at Stair Galleries in Hudson. The auction, "An American Icon: Property from the Collection of Joan Didion," is on display in the gallery now and is a stunningly intimate view into the home of the author of classics including Slouching Toward Bethlehem, The White Album, The Year of Magical Thinking and many others.

“It’s amazing. We are honored to have it all here, honestly,” said Lisa Thomas, Stair Galleries director of fine arts, who co-curated the auction with gallery founder and president Colin Stair. “We wanted to give people a feeling of what it was like to be really in it. We wanted it to feel like her personal space.”

The preview exhibition of the estate, which runs every day until the auction, has been meticulously arrayed to create a sense of being in Didion and Dunne’s living room and Diddion’s writing space. A plain oak table with an electric IBM typewriter on it stands beside an elbow-worn wooden desk chair with a cushion; there's an old shawl thrown over the back. It’s affecting to see in person.

But while you might expect to find the tableau in a quiet corner of the Smithsonian, this is Stair Galleries, and that means you can take it all home. The career archives of Didion’s estate are being historically preserved. What are being auctioned are the things in Diddion’s life, the objects she chose to live and work around. The items here are soaked in the residual energy of Didion’s intellect and creativity. That’s the value here. That’s why the rocks and shells will sell for thousands of dollars.

There are quite a few lots of Didion’s books available, selling as bundled. Also up for auction: stationery, her pair of scissors, unused notebooks, and an excellent collection of fine art by noted artists including Richard Serra, Annie Liebovitz, Willard Dixon, and Richard Diebenkorn. The couple's was not one of investment but work they loved and connected with.

“The reaction of a lot of people who have gone through the galley has been very emotional,” Thomas said. “People are really very moved. The fine art that she collected is representative of her and John’s personality.” 

Large frame sunglasses were particularly emblematic of Didion’s personality and there are pairs available, likely to go for thousands. The sunglasses have been characterized, Thomas said, as a way for Didion to stay private in public. Only a few photos from inside the apartment were ever published and the auction offers perhaps the closest fans and collectors will ever get with the writer — outside of her writing, of course. 

Because of Didion’s mystique and, likely because her essays have touched and inspired nearly every working journalist, the auction has received a lot of attention and press, covered already in the New York Times, Chicago-Sun Times, Bazaar, Artnet and more than a dozen others. 

With all the attention on the auction it’s going to involve some effort, and capital, to take even a smooth stone home from Stair on Wednesday.

“Our estimates are based on innate value. You don’t know the value of celebrity until the hammer falls,” Thomas said. “Many of the starting values appear ludicrously low but they will rise in value on the day.”

Even for those not looking to buy, any fan of Didion’s work should consider visiting Stair to view the preview galley exhibition. The room is set up as much as a tribute as it is a showroom. The writer’s presence is felt in a powerful way. It’s felt in her taste in art, her understated furniture, her old electric typewriters — even in the shells and rocks.

An American Icon: Property from the Collection of Joan Didion
Auction at Stair Galleries Wednesday, Nov, 16
11 a.m.