Almost a year after her death, Joan Didion’s estate sale has been held
Those sunglasses, or ones very much like them, sold for $27,000!!!
Check out the details here.
When my grandparents died, multiple generations sought the items with the greatest sentimental value. The plastic dishware, not the china. At your estate sale, what do you think will bring the highest bid? And yes, this is a lesson in the importance of objects in fiction.
Fran Lebowitz has a clever photo essay in which she showcases the objects from her life as an unknown writer -- threadbare towels, an ashtray -- as an estate sale catalog titled "Mementos Pori."
This is tangential to the question you asked, but the discussion made me think of it. Years ago I had an elderly neighbor who died alone and wasn't discovered for several days. She didn't have any close family, and no one came to clean out her apartment, leaving the building super to have to deal with it. The apartment was on the 5th floor, which happens to be the top floor of the building. Rather than hauling all of this woman's belongings down the stairs, the super took them to the roof and threw them off. I will never forget sitting in my living room and watching all of this woman's possessions falling in front of my window. Her entire life ending up in a broken pile behind the building. It was one of the most depressing things I have ever witnessed. That was probably 15 years ago, and I still tear up thinking about it.