Pore over the letters of Eve Babitz—queen of the witty, gossipy, and thoroughly engrossing missive.

Joan Didion, Joseph Heller, Annie Leibovitz, Paul Ruscha, Anne Rice, Steve Martin, and many others appear in this first-of-its-kind collection.

Letter-writing was the kind of writing Babitz did best. Her missives—fresh and frank, dashing and droll—are irresistible, as highly spirited as they are acutely perceptive. Take, for example, this letter to a friend in 1979:

“I wrote this letter to Leo Lerman, that editor at Vogue who took me out to lunch at the Algonquin when I was in NY…. So I told him how I’d moved to Santa Monica, and what it was like, and the skating and the Rodeo Drive-type stores. And he published the thing as is, or was (it was slightly edited). Now it’s appearing on every newsstand. And since it’s the kind of writing I do best—letters—people are dropping dead all over the place over how wonderful I am.”

People will drop dead all over the place when they get a load of this collection featuring letters to or from some of Babitz’ most famous friends, lovers, artistic idols and rivals, like Joan Didion, Joseph Heller, Annie Leibovitz, Paul Ruscha, Anne Rice, and Steve Martin.

Author Biography

Eve Babitz (1943–2021) was the author of several books of fiction, including Sex and Rage: Advice to Young Ladies Eager for a Good Time, L.A. Woman, and Black Swans: Stories. Her nonfiction works include Fiorucci, the Book and Two by Two: Tango, Two-Step, and the L.A. Night. She has written for a variety of publications including Ms. and Esquire and in the late 1960s designed album covers for the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, and Linda Ronstadt. NYRB Classics publishes Eve’s Hollywood, Slow Days, Fast Company, and I Used to Be Charming.

Lili Anolik is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair and a writer at large for Air Mail. Her work has also appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, and The Paris Review, among other publications. She is the creator of the podcast Once Upon a Time… at Bennington College. Her most recent books are Hollywood’s Eve and Didion & Babitz.

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