Joan Didion Biography

Joan Didion

Journalist and novelist who worked as a features editor at Vogue (1956–63) before becoming a freelance writer. She's best known for her essays that combined highly personal commentary with an apocalyptic view of American politics and culture. Collections of her magazine essays include Slouching Toward Bethlehem (1968) and The White Album (1979). Her critically acclaimed novels include Play It As It Lays (1970) and A Book of Common Prayer (1977). She has collaborated on newspaper columns and screenplays with her late husband John Gregory Dunne, whom she married in 1964.