Frenzy to Buy Joan Didion’s Belongings—Even a Paper Clip

An auction house set to sell off late writer Joan Didion’s belongings says it’s been swamped with calls from fans desperate to buy something—even a paper clip. The New York Times reports that the Nov. 16 sale at Stair Galleries in upstate New York will feature items both mundane and iconic: blank notebooks that might go for just $100 to the author’s signature sunglasses, her writing desk, and a rattan chair where she was often photographed. The auction even includes the drop-leaf dining table where her husband John Gregory Dunne suffered a fatal heart attack in 2003, 18 years before she died of Parkinson’s disease.