Joan Didion’s sharp observations of American life made her an icon of 20th-century literature. Born in 1934 in Sacramento, California, Didion got her start in journalism in the 1950s at acclaimed magazines such as Mademoiselle and Vogue. Through the 1960s and ’70s, she became known for her clear voice and her ability to understand and capture the unsettled mood of a tumultuous time. Her essays, collected in Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) and The White Album (1979), exemplified Didion’s pioneering blend of journalism and personal narrative, a style known as New Journalism.

Didion was also a compelling political reporter and celebrated novelist: Play It As It Lays (1970) is considered a benchmark of modern American fiction. Didion’s later works detailed her personal tragedies: The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) and Blue Nights (2011), about the deaths of her husband and daughter, respectively, both revealed a voice that was as introspective as it was unflinching. In 2005, Didion was awarded the National Book Award for The Year of Magical Thinking, and in 2013, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama. She continued writing until her death in 2021.