The gothic, candelabra-lit parlor of the Chateau Marmont was buzzing on Tuesday evening with tequila and celebrity gossip from the 1960s — a fitting scene for a release party of Lili Anolik’s new book, “Didion & Babitz.”
The dual-biography, which draws parallels between Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, two Californian writers who partied in Hollywood throughout the 1960s and ’70s and died within days of each other in December 2021, is one of 2024’s most anticipated releases, snagging endorsements from celebrities like Lena Dunham and Emma Roberts.
Though the book technically is about both Ms. Babitz and Ms. Didion — the literary giants who documented the culture and glamour of California — the night was squarely centered around Ms. Babitz, who frequented the Chateau has experienced a renaissance in recent years.
“She’s hard not to love,” said the actress Nicole Richie. “I fell in love with her when she wrote ‘Sex and Rage.’ It’s just a fun ride.”
Ms. Anolik, one of Ms. Babitz’s most devoted fans and scholars, who previously wrote “Hollywood’s Eve: Eve Babitz and the Secret History of L.A.,” said her new book is, in part, an examination of female frenemyship — rife with ambition, competition and insecurity.
“I see it as a nonfiction version of ‘My Brilliant Friend,’” Ms. Anolik said, referring to the novel by Elena Ferrante.
“It’s about a friendship, but a complicated friendship that was rivalrous, too,” she added. “I saw the two women as kind of opposites, but doubles of each other.”
Ms. Babitz’s unsent letters and unpublished journal entries were read throughout the party by Ms. Anolik and the actresses Da’vine Joy Randolph, Alexi Wasser, Emma Roberts, Elizabeth Olsen, Beverly D’Angelo and Ms. Richie.
“A very terrible thing happened to me,” Ms. Randolph read, kicking off the night with a 1964 letter addressed to the novelist Joseph Heller.
“I was born a girl. It would be OK if I were ugly or something, or even startlingly unattractive, but as luck would have it, I’m gorgeous.”
The room burst into laughter every few lines as the actresses rattled off Ms. Babitz’s cheeky jokes and insults. The writer’s sister, Mirandi Babitz, 78, laughed and shrugged playfully as her name came up in her older sister’s work.
Waiters circulated throughout the evening to offer guests spicy cucumber margaritas and tequila sodas alongside tiny grilled cheeses and French fries. Though dozens of cigarettes sat on a table next to black lighters branded with the words “Didion & Babitz,” no one was bold enough to light one inside.
Karah Preiss, who cocreated a reading community called Belletrist alongside Ms. Roberts, was the event’s master of ceremonies. As she introduced each letter and journal entry, Ms. Preiss explained any important dates and names that the audience might need to know.
“This journal is from the fall of ’69, so just post-Manson, to the spring of 1970,” Ms. Preiss said before Ms. Wasser — the daughter of the celebrated photographer Julian Wasser, who took famous images of both writers — took the stage for her reading.
Ms. Roberts said that reading Ms. Babitz’s letters felt “cathartic.”
“One of the things I love about tonight is that there is something really therapeutic about writing letters and not sending them,” Ms. Roberts said. “That seems to me like a universal thing that people do.”
At times, the evening felt a bit like a posthumous roast of Ms. Didion, whom Ms. Babitz criticized in her unsent letters for being misogynistic and dull.
Though Ms. Anolik didn’t read any excerpts from her new book, she did read a 1972 letter that Ms. Babitz addressed to Ms. Didion.
“Just think, Joan, if you were 5-foot-11 and wrote like you do and stuff, people would judge you differently,” Ms. Anolik read. She added: “Could you write what you write if you weren’t so tiny, Joan? Would you be allowed to if you weren’t physically so unthreatening?”
Yet even as their beef was aired out, the room maintained a consistent adoration for both women, flaws and all.
“I just like fearless women that use their art, their inner power, to affect change and know what they bring to the table,” Ms. Randolph said. “It’s OK to be pretty, it’s OK to be intelligent, it’s OK to be a woman.”
“You can’t be quiet and expect things to get done,” she added. “I like that both of them don’t mind getting a little loud about it, and real about it.”
Before the event wrapped up around 7:30 p.m., one question still loomed over the parlor: would Ms. Didion or Ms. Babitz attend a party like this one?
“Not at this hour,” Ms. Richie said, referencing the event’s early start time. “Maybe later on.”
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