BREAKING NEWS

Joan Didion is dead at 87. Her sharp dispatches on California and tough, terse novels forged a distinct new voice in American writing.

Thursday, December 23, 2021 12:07 PM EST

Ms. Didion came to prominence with a series of incisive, searching feature articles in Life magazine and The Saturday Evening Post that explored the fraying edges of postwar American life.

After establishing herself as a leading exponent of the New Journalism, she turned to fiction, with novels like "Play It as It Lays" and "The Book of Common Prayer."

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