About
Joan Didion, born in Sacramento, California, is a major figure of New Journalism. After studying at Berkeley, she worked at Vogue before publishing her first novel, Run River, in 1963. Her essays, including Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album, capture the spirit of the 1960s-1970s. She also wrote novels like Play It As It Lays and screenplays with her husband John Gregory Dunne. Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking, about grief, won the National Book Award in 2005. She died in New York in 2021.
* 1934-12-05 — † 2021-12-23
Major works
- Run River (1963)novel
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968)essays
- Play It As It Lays (1970)novel
- The White Album (1979)essays
- The Year of Magical Thinking (2005)memoir
Key milestones
- 1956Graduated with a degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley.
- 2005Won the National Book Award for her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking.
- 2013Received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama.
Themes
Grief and lossAmerican cultureFemale identityDisillusionmentMemory and time
Sources: joandidion.org · nationalbook.org · penguinrandomhouse.com