Joan Didion, 10 Dollar Bill - H 2015
With an image of a woman officially slated to join Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill, an L.A. bookstore frequented by the entertainment industry has launched a social media campaign — #joanontheten — in the hopes the U.S. Department of the Treasury will select Joan Didion.
The idea was hatched by Rob Bieselin — a graphic designer at Book Soup, one of L.A.’s last remaining independent bookstores — who first scribbled the idea on the chalkboard in front of the store after the Treasury Department announced in July that a woman would appear on the $10 bill in 2020.
When customers responded enthusiastically, Bieselin substituted a publicity photo of Didion for Hamilton, printed a 4-foot-long poster of the redesigned bill and hung it in the front window.
The iconic novelist, essayist and screenwriter — Didion and late husband John Gregory Dunne co-wrote the 1976 remake of A Star Is Born and the screen adaptation of Didion’s novel Play It As It Lays — “is a big L.A. voice and a best-seller at the store; people react to her image the same way for her literature and essays,” said Bieselin.
Book Soup is giving away the Didion-adorned $10 bills with each book purchase.
