Joan Didion 10 Personal Facts, Biography, Wiki
American writer Born: December 5, 1934, Sacramento, California, United States Died: December 23, 2021 Spouse: John Gregory Dunne (m. 1964–2003) Children: Quintana Roo Dunne Parents: Eduene Didion, Frank Reese Didion
Joan Didion 10 Pics, Photos, Pictures
Joan Didion 10 Fast Facts, Biography, Wiki
While in New York and working at Vogue, Didion met John Gregory Dunne, her future husband, who was writing for Time magazine. He was the younger brother of the author, businessman, and television mystery show host Dominick Dunne. The couple married in 1964 and moved to Los Angeles, intending to stay only temporarily, but California ultimately became their home for the next 20 years. Their daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, was born on March 3, 1966, in New York City and was adopted later that year. In the title essay of The White Album, Didion documents a nervous breakdown she experienced in the summer of 1968. After undergoing psychiatric evaluation, she was diagnosed as having had an attack of vertigo and nausea. She was also diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In her essay “In Bed”, Didion explained that she suffered from chronic migraines. In 1979, Didion was living in Brentwood Park, California, a quiet, residential neighborhood of Los Angeles. Before her move to Brentwood she lived in the Hollywood/Los Feliz area, on Franklin Avenue, from 1963 to 1971, one block north of Hollywood Boulevard. Two tragedies struck Didion in the space of less than two years. On December 30, 2003, while their daughter Quintana Roo Dunne lay comatose in the ICU with septic shock resulting from pneumonia, her husband suffered a fatal heart attack at the dinner table. Didion delayed his funeral arrangements for approximately three months until Quintana was well enough to attend. Visiting Los Angeles after her father’s funeral, Quintana fell at the airport, hit her head on the pavement and suffered a massive hematoma, requiring six hours of brain surgery at UCLA Medical Center. After progressing toward recovery in 2004, Quintana died of acute pancreatitis on August 26, 2005, during Didion’s New York promotion for The Year of Magical Thinking. She was 39. Didion later wrote about Quintana’s death in the 2011 book Blue Nights. In 2005, Didion was living in an apartment on East 71st Street in New York City. Her nephew Griffin Dunne directed a documentary about her, Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold; it was released by Netflix on October 27, 2017. In it, with the assistance of her nephew and friends who have seen her career progress, she further discussed her writing and personal life. The deaths of her husband and her daughter in 2005 are also further explored, adding context to her books The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights. Didion died from complications of Parkinson’s disease at her home in Manhattan on December 23, 2021, at the age of 87.
