Joan Didion
Joan Didion (/ˈdɪdiən/; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer. She was born in Sacramento, California. In the 1960s, she released a collection of essays titled Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968). In 1970, she released Play It as It Lays. She was seen as an important writer during the New Journalism period.[1]
Early life
[change | change source]Didion was born on December 5, 1934, in Sacramento, California,[1][2] to Eduene (née Jerrett) and Frank Reese Didion.[1] She received a B.A. in English from University of California, Berkeley, in 1956.[3] Didion wrote her first novel, which was about a woman dying in the Sahara Desert, when she was five years old.[4]
Career
[change | change source]In 1991, she wrote the earliest mainstream media article to suggest the Central Park Five had been wrongfully convicted.[5]
In 2005, she won the National Book Award for Nonfiction and was a finalist for both the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Biography/Autobiography for The Year of Magical Thinking.[6][7]
In 2017, a Netflix documentary about her career, The Center Will Not Hold, was released.[8]
Personal life
[change | change source]Didion was married to writer John Gregory Dunne from 1964 until his death in 2003. They adopted one daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne.[1]
Didion died from problems caused by Parkinson's disease at her home in New York City on December 23, 2021, at the age of 87.[1]
References
[change | change source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Grimes, William (December 23, 2021). "Joan Didion, 'New Journalist' Who Explored Culture and Chaos, Dies at 87". The New York Times. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
- ↑ "Joan Didion Biography and Interview". achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. Archived from the original on January 2, 2019. Retrieved April 3, 2019.
- ↑ Als, Hilton (Spring 2006). "Joan Didion, The Art of Nonfiction No. 1". The Paris Review. Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2017.
- ↑ "10 Fascinating Facts About Joan Didion". Mental Floss. Retrieved May 29, 2025.
- ↑ "From The Archive: Joan Didion On Hollywood, Her Personal Style & The Central Park 5". British Vogue. February 19, 2020. Archived from the original on February 19, 2021. Retrieved February 19, 2021.
- ↑ Bacharach, Jacob (December 27, 2021). "Joan Didion Cast Off the Fictions of American Politics". The New Republic. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
- ↑ Ramos, Santiago (February 18, 2022). "Vanities Come to Dust". Commonweal. Retrieved September 13, 2023.
- ↑ Wilkinson, Alissa (October 25, 2017). "Joan Didion is more interesting than the new Netflix documentary about her". Vox. Archived from the original on July 10, 2018. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
Other websites
[change | change source]
- Official website
- Joan Didion on The California Museum's California Legacy Trails
- The New York Review of Books: Joan Didion
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Joan Didion on IMDb
- Joan Didion, on Enciclopedia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc
- Joan Didion, on Open Library, Internet Archive
- Joan Didion, on Goodreads
- Joan Didion, on AllMovie, All Media Network
- Joan Didion, on Internet Broadway Database, The Broadway League
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