November 1, 2022
"I wish she were still alive to write a mordant and illuminating essay on the auction of her personal belongings."
The top-rated comment on "Joan Didion’s Life in Objects/Hundreds of the writer’s furnishings and personal items will be sold at auction next month, offering fans the opportunity to acquire a piece of her legacy" (NYT).
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14 comments:
I would definitely bid on her reporter's notebook from her spring 1967 expedition to San Francisco for what became Slouching.
Have heard the name but no idea who/what she is/was...
I was going to say compare this to Liz Wurtzel's estate sale last week. Are these events always as mournful as that one apparently was, according to some accounts? Or are they less depressing occasions? Or are they poignant, but for different reasons?
It probably matters that we in some sense "know" the deceased and aren't just looking for bargains. They guy who paid $30 dollars at a suburban estate sale for what turned out to be a $50 million Dürer drawing probably wasn't unhappy.
It's hard to say that Didion's last years were anything but depressing. Will that be the prevailing atmosphere at the sale? Beyond that, how much of a reporter's account depends on her own mood and preoccupations at the time, rather than on the events themselves?
I've been interested in these stories of estate sales — Wurtzel's and Didion's.
It's one thing to auction off genuinely expensive things — furniture worth thousands of dollars, valuable art objects, gold jewelry. But what's awful is wringing money out of every little thing, like a garage sale, when it's a person who, in life, did not do garage sales. I think privacy is violated. I mean, isn't that the point? You could have the paperback copy of "For Whom the Bell Tolls," dog-eared by the celebrity herself.
My mother directly announced that she would "haunt" us if we put her things up for an estate sale. She didn't want strangers pawing through her things, deciding how much they were worth or whatever.
But maybe it's something the fans of the author should have access to. Someone might treasure a stray ballpoint that Didion might have jotted a note with. Every single pen or pencil found in her house could sell for $10. If there are a hundred.... I'll take a Ticoderoga with bite marks....
Do literary people inhabit a different niche of celebrity than athletes, movie stars, or politicians? Are they and their effects in some way more sacrosanct than Dorothy and her ruby slippers?...If I were a drug addict I would like to own Wurtzel's drug dispenser. It would help me feel connected to the past and part of a grand tradition. Of course, the thing to own would be Burrough's hypodermic needle or DeQuincy's opium pipe. I bet they're worth a pretty penny. Matthew Perry probably paid top dollar for them.
Estate sales are morbid and depressing.
Do you really need to buy the pants of a dead guy because they're $5?
You can never predict the past. I think Fitzgerald now has a higher reputation than Hemingway. His fountain pen is now probably worth more than Hemingway's, but at one time you could have picked it up for a pittance. DosPasos used to rank just below Hemingway, but who now wants to own his typewriter....It's a pity that none of the Jefferson children had the foresight to squirrel away the quill pen he used to write the Declaration of Independence. They could have auctioned it off and used the proceeds to free some of the slaves at Monticello. ... I think Mickey Mantle's lifetime stats were better than Dimaggio's, but Dimaggio sports memorabilia is the stuff to own. It would be really cool to own the sheets he and Marilyn slept on during their first wedding night. Some hotel could feature them in their bridal suite and pick up a pretty penny. I guess that doesn't really count as sports memorabilia though.
Estate sales are morbid and depressing.
Do you really need to buy the pants of a dead guy because they're $5?
What should be done with a dead person's things? Landfill?
My town is full of poor people who are delighted to buy well-off dead people's stuff at reasonable prices, and the dead peoples' adult children offload the brown furniture and 70s kitchenware and garage tools and get a check in exchange. Everyone is happy.
I like estate sales. They are interesting if occasionally sad walking meditations on the physical stuff that we leave behind. It's awful when there are obvious family heirlooms that no one wants; one thing I recall is a series of 19th century portraits and birth certificates in German; seriously, not one descendant wanted them?! :(
In addition to everyday practical items that come in handy and that I don't see a need to buy brand new, I have found some wonderful books and art pieces. One is a stunning art deco serving dish that I found in pile of glassware in a barn in rural Texas, in a pattern that has an example in the Brooklyn Museum. The 110 year journey it took to wind up displayed in my home is fun to contemplate. I have a huge original Leopold Kny botanical wall chart of molds (it's so much cooler than it sounds) from around 1900 that I got for $75 and later framed. An enormous illustrated public works street map of my city from 1977, also for $75. $50 for a 10 gallon stoneware fermentation crock that is gorgeous and I display antique rolling pins in. A couple of spectacular handmade quilts that bring me enjoyment every time I look at them. My husband has a huge stiffie for well made vintage electronics and radio equipment that he does in fact use. Etc. If you have an eye for good design and well made antiques and vintage, estate sales are your playground. If you want to pay inflated prices for all new plastic modern mass produced trash, it won't be your scene. My little daughter does art projects at an antique wooden child's desk with a precious matching chair; I bought the set for $60 and it's beautiful and made to last, as opposed to ugly plastic from Target at twice the price. Our family values beauty, quality and wise stewardship and buying dead people's stuff is a good expression of those things.
An unassuming rambler in a tiny town in Kansas held a perfect condition Hoosier cabinet for $300. Sadly I couldn't transport it, but, germane to the conversation the other day about fast furniture, you couldn't get a modern particleboard piece of garbage for that let alone a rock solid handcrafted piece of wooden furniture with a marble countertop.
When she bit into it, it obliterated the N.
William...
It depends on how you define sports.
Mordant commentary? Is that because she likes people dyeing?
"My mother directly announced that she would "haunt" us if we put her things up for an estate sale. She didn't want strangers pawing through her things, deciding how much they were worth or whatever."
I'm curious: What does she expect you to do with her stuff? Keep it all? Or just throw it in the dump.
I've seen that last attitude at the recycling center / dumpster. Car pulls up with mom's best china, which they proceeded to trash. Such a waste.
Ticonderoga
Sorry for the misspelling
“ When she bit into it, it obliterated the N.”
Thanks for noticing
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