What’s so great about buying things from estate sales? The answer is simple: You get to tell people, “I got this at the oddest little estate sale.” To be able to purchase something from a famous person’s estate sale? That only quadruples the pleasure of such an utterance.
It’s been almost a year since Joan Didion’s death, and an assortment of the legendary writer’s belongings are now up for sale. During her life and since her passing, Didion has garnered a cult-like worship of her combined literary and literal visage. Owning an item, however useless, will only bring her admirers that much closer to her.
Stair Galleries in New York’s Hudson Valley is hosting the estate sale, titled “An American Icon: Property From the Collection of Joan Didion.” Her items are on view there and you’re able to bid for them online until November 16th. Proceeds from the sale will benefit Sacramento City College scholarship for women writers and Parkinson’s research at Columbia University.
I’ve highlighted some notable items in the auction, though not necessarily the most valuable. I’ve also included a few subtle ways you can work into casual conversation that you now own something once owned by Didion. Because let’s be honest, why else would you have bought a biography of John McCain that one Amazon reviewer described as a “dull and uninspiring book about a true American hero,” if not because Didion herself might have had the same thoughts while holding it in her bony, little, iconic hands?
