Joan Didion

Background

Joan Didion was an American novelist and screenwriter whose incredible writing skills earned her great recognition. She was born on December 5, 1934, in Sacramento, California, U.S., to Frank Reese Didion, a finance officer in the Army Air Corps., and his wife, Eduene. She grew up alongside her younger brother, James, and was a shy child who was always immersed in books. Given her father’s transferable job, she had an unconventional, or rather irregular education and could not attend any school regularly. In 1956, she earned a degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley. In her senior year of college, she participated in an essay contest organized by “Vogue” magazine and was declared the winner. As a prize, she won a job at the magazine, which she accepted.

At her job, she steadily climbed her way up from a promotional copywriter to an associate feature editor. In 1963, while still with the magazine, she wrote her debut novel, “Run, River.” In 1968, she published her first non-fiction book, “Slouching Towards Bethlehem,” a collection of essays about her Californian experiences. In 1970, she published “Play It as It Lays” and, in 1977, “A Book of Common Prayer.” “The White Album” (1979) followed, and in 1983, she wrote “Salvador.” In 1992, she published “After Henry,” a collection of 12 geographical essays. After her husband’s demise in 2005, she published “The Year of Magical Thinking,” which won several awards.

Didion was an exceptionally gifted writer and novelist whose books were not just entertaining but impactful as well. Her last published work was “Let Me Tell You What I Mean,” which came out in 2021. Didion preferred to keep her personal life under wraps. Didion lived a full life, sharing excerpts of her life experiences through her writing. Didion passed away from Parkinson’s disease on December 23, 2021, in New York, U.S.