Joan Didion Documentary Funded on Kickstarter

Project exceeds goal of $80K in one day
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 24, 2014 9:32 AM CDT
Joan Didion Documentary Funded on Kickstarter
Author Joan Didion accepts the 2007 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The early results of a new Kickstarter campaign make it safe to say that the world very much wants to see a documentary on author Joan Didion. In its first day, the funding campaign exceeded its goal of $80,000, reports Time. By this morning, it had reached $123,000 and counting, with 28 days still left. All of which means that Didion's nephew, filmmaker Griffin Dunne, will move ahead with We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live. The project has the blessing of his "incredibly private" 79-year-old aunt. "I've always known she had a legion of fans that grows with every generation," Dunne tells the Los Angeles Times. "But I'm still taken aback by the response. Every time I get up to use the bathroom, the number has gone up."

Didion published her first novel in 1963, notes the Guardian, and soon after gained widespread acclaim for Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a collection of magazine essays. She's been writing fiction and non-fiction alike since, including The Year of Magical Thinking, which won the 2005 National Book Award for non-fiction. The memoir chronicles her grief after the death of her husband, John Dunne. Fans who pledge can get some interesting stuff in return, from Didion's list of the 12 books you must read before you die ($35) to the chance to have your two-page letter read aloud to her ($350) to a pair of her sunglasses ($2,500).

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