Joan Didion and the Western Spirit

LOS ANGELES — Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, a fifth-generation Californian, and wrote some of her most memorable essays, novels and screenpla...

October 10, 2022
3:50 AM

LOS ANGELES — Joan Didion was born in Sacramento, a fifth-generation Californian, and wrote some of her most memorable essays, novels and screenplays during her years on the West Coast. She moved to New York City (for a second time) in 1988 and lived there — a literary, cultural and social icon — until she died in her Manhattan apartment at the age of 87 in 2021. There have always been competing claims on the Didion legacy by New York and California. So it seems noteworthy that an examination of her life, an ambitious museum exhibition created with her blessing, will open Oct.

Adam Nagourney