Joan Didion is that rarest of Americans - a fifth-generation native-born Californian and that great state figures prominently in her writing over the years. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley, she began her career as a features editor at Vogue Magazine in 1956.
Considered an unparalleled prose stylist and one of the most significant figures on the American literary scene today, Didion has produced a wide-ranging and varied body of work.
She is perhaps best known for two personal/social commentaries that have become classic studies in American culture:
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) - series of twenty essays on the then-modern world of the 1960s. Included in this collection is her famous "On Morality", which seems as relevant today as it did then.
- The White Album (1978) - Essays on California and its unique culture. The book's title comes from the Beatles album of the same name.
Other nonfiction titles include:
- Salvador (1983) - a highly-praised study of U.S. Policy in El Salvador.
- Miami (1987) about Florida's Cuban exile community.
- After Henry (1992) Another winning essay collection, this time focusing on California.
- Political Fictions (2001)
- Where I Was From (2003)
- The Year of Magical Thinking (2005)
Fiction:
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Run River (1963) Didion's first novel.
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Play it as it Lays (1970)
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A Book of Common Prayer (1977)
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Democracy (1984)
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The Last Thing He Wanted (1996)
Didion has also published many essays, commentaries and journals in various publications, including The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books.
The copyright of the article Joan Didion: Further Reading in Biographies/Memoirs is owned by Colleen Preston. Permission to republish Joan Didion: Further Reading in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
