Slouching Towards Bethlehem | The Saturday Evening Post

In her transformative essay from 1967, Joan Didion takes a closer look at the dark side of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture during the Summer of Love.

© Ted Streshinsky/Corbis/Corbis via Getty images Weekly Newsletter The best of The Saturday Evening Post in your inbox! Join SUPPORT THE POST [ Editor’s note: Joan Didion’s “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” was first published in the September 23, 1967, edition of the Post . We republish it here as part of our 50th anniversary commemoration of the Summer of Love . Scroll to the bottom to see this story as it appeared in the magazine.] Things fall apart; the center cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world . . . Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand . . . A

related reading

• Slouching Towards Bethlehemjoandidion.org
• Summer of Love - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
• Howl | The Poetry Foundationpoetryfoundation.org
• The Foothills Of Bay Area House Partyastralcodexten.com
• All the nerds are deadsamkriss.substack.com
• The Use and Abuse of Joan Didion | THR Web Features | Web Features | The Hedgehog Reviewhedgehogreview.com
• Bylinebylinebyline.com
• Didion - Goodbye to All Thatlindaktong.github.io
• All the nerds are deadsamkriss.substack.com
• Joan Didion Cast Off the Fictions of American Politics | The New Republicnewrepublic.com
• fragments of moriana // san francisco journals #2sunkht.substack.com
• Remains of the Day | Eugene Wei | Substackeugenewei.substack.com