In the 1980s and 1990s, as successive administrations hailed "morning in America" and took inspiration from "a thousand points of light," Joan Didion brought her brilliant and impeccably stylish prose to bear on the darker truths of American empire. This second volume in Library of America's definitive; edition of her collected writings gathers five classic books: Salvador, a harrowing, firsthand report from a Central American Cold War battleground; Democracy, widely considered Didion's finest novel, set in 1975 against the backdrop of the fall of Saigon; Miami, a portrait of a city turned staging area for clandestine and criminal ambitions; After Henry, incisive essays that dissect American politics in the Reagan era, living with brush fires in California, and the notorious case of the Central Park Five, among other topics; and The Last Thing He Wanted, an intricately plotted thriller loosely inspired by the real life conspiracies of the Iran-Contra affair. The Library of America, a nonprofit publisher, is dedicated to preserving America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Book jacket.