Joan Didion Nook, mezzanine

This space supported by ​The Johnson Family Foundation ​in memory of Eileen Johnson

Joan Didion (1934–2021) was a prominent American novelist, essayist, and is considered one of the pioneers of the ‘New Journalism’ movement. Didion graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1956, and moved to New York, where she began working at Vogue, launching her career as a journalist and writer. Her first novel, Run River, was published in 1963, and she authored several other acclaimed works of fiction in her lifetime. 

Didion was also a master of nonfiction, publishing essay collections such as Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) and The White Album (1970). Her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking (2005) won the National Book Award. Known for her incisive prose and cultural insight, Didion received numerous lifetime honors before her death in 2021.