Joan Didion has always had a way of turning stark moments into stories. Now, four years after she left us in 2021, her personal reflections are about to take center stage again. Knopf, marking its 110th anniversary this year, has unveiled plans to publish a recently uncovered journal called Notes to John on April 22, 2025. This is Didion’s first new material since 2011, and it’s sending ripples through the literary scene.
The diary holds 49 entries, all directed to her husband John Gregory Dunne, who passed away in 2003. With each entry, readers will trace Didion’s unfiltered thoughts on her marriage, as well as her own struggles—discussions she once had in therapy about her childhood, depression, and drinking. There’s also a window into her relationship with her daughter, Quintana Roo, whose battle with addiction mirrored her own. Quintana’s death in 2005, which followed her father’s by just two years, weighs heavily in the pages.
Ethics loom large here. Didion never left specific instructions on what to do with these deeply personal writings. The publisher has stated it made only minimal changes—basic spelling fixes and footnotes—so the journal will appear much as she wrote it. Some might question the decision to reveal such private material, yet for many admirers, this volume represents a final entry in Didion’s own chronicle of loss and resilience.
Notes to John dates back to December 1999, discovered in a cabinet near Didion’s California workspace. As it goes public, it promises a candid portrait of a woman whose prose set the bar for intimate storytelling—this time captured in her own raw, handwritten words.
