''The White Album'' is a 1979 book of

essays An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. Along with Tom Wolfe, Hunter S. Thompson and Gay Talese, she is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism. Didion's career began in the 1950s after she won an ...

. Like her previous book ''

Slouching Towards Bethlehem ''Slouching Towards Bethlehem'' is a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion that mainly describes her experiences in California during the 1960s. It takes its title from the poem " The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats. The contents of this ...

'', ''The White Album'' is a collection of works previously published in magazines such as ''

Life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

'' and ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

''. The subjects of the essays range widely and represent a mixture of

memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...

criticism Criticism is the construction of a judgement about the negative qualities of someone or something. Criticism can range from impromptu comments to a written detailed response. , ''"the act of giving your opinion or judgment about the good or bad q ...

, and

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...

, focusing on the history and politics of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

in the late 1960s and early 70s. With the publication of ''The White Album'', Didion had established herself as a prominent writer on Californian culture. As critic

Michiko Kakutani Michiko Kakutani (born January 9, 1955) is an American writer and retired literary critic, best known for reviewing books for ''The New York Times'' from 1983 to 2017. In that role, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1998. Early life ...

stated, "California belongs to Joan Didion." The title of the book comes from its first essay, "The White Album", which was chosen as one of the 10 most important essays since 1950 by ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

''. The opening sentence of this essay—"We tell ourselves stories in order to live"—would become one of Didion's best-known sayings, and was used as the title of a 2006 collection of Didion's nonfiction.

''The White Album'' is organized into five sections. The first section contains only the title essay, while the other four sections are identified by a major topic or theme, such as "California Republic" or "Women."

I. The White Album

*"The White Album" (1968–78)

"The White Album" is an autobiographical literary essay detailing loosely related events in the author's life in the 1960s, primarily in Los Angeles, California. In the course of describing her ongoing psychological difficulties, Didion discusses
Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...
meetings, drug-related experiences, a
Doors A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...
recording session, various other interactions with LA musicians and cultural figures and several prison meetings with
Linda Kasabian Linda Darlene Kasabian (born Drouin; June 21, 1949) is a former member of the Manson Family. Even though she was present at both the Tate and LaBianca murders, because she was the key witness in District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi's prosecuti ...
, a former follower of
Charles Manson Charles Milles Manson (; November 12, 1934November 19, 2017) was an American criminal and musician who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California, in the late 1960s. Some of the members committed a series of nine murders at four loca ...
who was testifying against the group for the grisly
Sharon Tate Sharon Marie Tate Polanski (January 24, 1943 – August 9, 1969) was an American actress and model. During the 1960s, she played small television roles before appearing in films and was regularly featured in fashion magazines as a model and cover ...
murders. Tate had been an acquaintance of Didion's. The murder trial cast a cloud of fear over Hollywood that seemed to propel many of Didion's insights. The impression conveyed is one of a city and nation pervaded by paranoia and detachment.

Martin Amis Martin Louis Amis (born 25 August 1949) is a British novelist, essayist, memoirist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and ''London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his memoir '' ...
wrote critically of the book:

idionstands revealed, in ''The White Album,'' as a human being who has managed to gouge another book out of herself, rather than as a writer who gets her living done on the side, or between the lines. The result is a volatile, occasionally brilliant, distinctly female contribution to the new
New Journalism New Journalism is a style of news writing and journalism, developed in the 1960s and 1970s, that uses literary techniques unconventional at the time. It is characterized by a subjective perspective, a literary style reminiscent of long-form non ...
, diffident and imperious by turns, intimate yet categorical, self-effacingly listless and at the same time often subtly self-serving. She can still find her own perfect pitch for long stretches, and she has an almost embarrassingly sharp ear and unblinking eye for the Californian inanity. Seemingly obedient, though, to the verdicts of her psychiatric report, Miss Didion writes about everything with the same doom-conscious yet faintly abstract intensity of interest, whether remarking on the dress sense of one of Manson’s henchwomen, or indulging her curious obsession with Californian waterworks in these pieces, Miss Didion’s writing does not "reflect" her moods so much as dramatise them. "How she feels" has become, for the time being, how it is.

II. California Republic

James Pike James Albert Pike (February 14, 1913–) was an American Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal bishop, accused heretic, iconoclast, prolific writer, and one of the first mainline, charismatic religious figures to appear regularly on televi ...

, American" (1976)

In this essay Didion recalls
James Pike James Albert Pike (February 14, 1913–) was an American Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal bishop, accused heretic, iconoclast, prolific writer, and one of the first mainline, charismatic religious figures to appear regularly on televi ...
, the charismatic and controversial fifth Episcopalian Bishop of California at once eulogizing and raising questions about his legacy, unpacking the ways in which the remarkably diversity of accomplishments and passions are riddled with contradictions in a manner that makes his character, in some way, a microcosm for the psychology of the state where he was made bishop. A thinly veiled fictionalized version of this essay is criticized in
Philip K. Dick Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928March 2, 1982), often referred to by his initials PKD, was an American science fiction writer. He wrote 44 novels and about 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines during his l ...
's fictionalized memoir/biography of James Pike, ''
The Transmigration of Timothy Archer ''The Transmigration of Timothy Archer'' is a 1982 novel by American writer Philip K. Dick. As his final work, the book was published shortly after his death in March 1982, although it was written the previous year. The novel draws on autobio ...
'' which was published posthumously as the third volume in Dick's
VALIS Trilogy The ''VALIS trilogy'' is a set of science fiction/philosophical novels by author Philip K. Dick which include ''VALIS'' (1978), ''The Divine Invasion'' (1980), and ''The Transmigration of Timothy Archer'' (1982). Dick's first novel about the VALI ...
. In TOTA, Didion and The White Album, respectively, are given the aliases "Jane Marione" and "The Green Cover."

*"Holy Water" (1977) *"Many Mansions" (1977) *"The Getty" (1977) *"Bureaucrats" (1976) *"Good Citizens" (1968–70) *"Notes Toward a Dreampolitik" (1968–70)

III. Women

*"The Women's Movement" (1972) *"

Doris Lessing Doris May Lessing (; 22 October 1919 – 17 November 2013) was a British-Zimbabwean novelist. She was born to British parents in Iran, where she lived until 1925. Her family then moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where she remain ...

" (1971) *"

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...

" (1976)

IV. Sojourns

*"In the Islands" (1969–1977) *"In Hollywood" (1973) *"In Bed" (1968) *"On the Road" (1977) *"On the Mall" (1975) *"In Bogotá" (1974) *"At the Dam" (1970)

V. On the Morning After the Sixties

*"On the Morning After the Sixties" (1970) *"Quiet Days in Malibu" (1976–1978)

External links

Full text of "Holy Water" from PBS.org.
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References