Legendary Writer Joan Didion Dead at 87

One of the country’s greatest writers has passed away.

E! News can confirm best-selling author Joan Didion died on Thursday, Dec. 23. She was 87. 

“We are deeply saddened to report that Joan Didion died earlier this morning at her home in New York due to complications from Parkinson’s disease,” her team said in a statement. 

Didion’s long career began after she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1956 when she moved to New York and began working for Vogue. After starting her career as a journalist, she published her first novel in 1963 called Run River. 

One year later, Didion married John Gregory Dunne and moved to California where they would become frequent literary collaborators. The pair worked together on screenplays for The Panic in Needle Park, A Star Is Born and Didion’s second novel titled Play It As It Lays. They would also adopt a daughter, Quintana Roo, in 1967.