Ernest Hemingway

Hemingway is discussed at length in the essay titled "Last Words." Didion is compassionate towards the writer not only because she respects and admires his talent for the craft, but also because she takes issue with the way in which his widow and agent published his posthumous works, some of which he had explicitly noted should remain private. For Didion, the tragedy of Hemingway's death was not necessarily his suicide, although she is moved by that as well, but rather the tragedy is the loss of control over his own written words, words which he had painstakingly chosen with care in his life and yet which were carelessly cut, altered, and published in his death.

Tony Richardson

Tony Richardson was a close friend of Didion's and a celebrated theatre director. She writes "The Long-Distance Runner" to honor his memory and to explore the ways in which...