Find more facts and information on our topic page about
Joan Didion
Didion, Joan
The Oxford Companion to American Literature
|
1995
|
|
© The Oxford Companion to American Literature 1995, originally published by Oxford University Press 1995. (Hide copyright information)
Copyright
Didion, Joan (1934– ),California author whose novels include
Run River (1963), depicting deteriorating ways of life in her native Sacramento Valley;
Play It as It Lays (1970), presenting a woman caught in the social disintegration of southern California; and
A Book of Common Prayer (1977), treating the growing self‐awareness and shattering life of a California woman in Central America.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem (1968) and
The White Album (1979) are nonfictional works on contemporary life, mainly related to California, her synecdoche for a deteriorating modern world. Other works are
Democracy (1984), a novel;
Essays and Interviews (1984);
Miami (1987), a nonfictional examination of the Cuban immigrants;
After Henry (1992), essays about lives of people in New York, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles;
Political Fictions (2001), which collects eight essays covering U.S. politics between 1988 and 2000; and
Where I Was From (2003), a meditation on the reality and the metaphorical role of California in American life and her own life. She and her husband,
John Gregory Dunne, also write film scripts.
Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.
|
Analysis: Joan Didion survives "The Year of Magical Thinking"
Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 9/30/2005; ; 700+ words
; ...NPR) 09-30-2005 Analysis: Joan Didion survives "The Year of Magical...her 40th wedding anniversary, Joan Didion's beloved husband, novelist...their dining room table and died. Joan Didion has written a book about his death...
|
|
|
Interview: Joan Didion discusses the press and politicians as they are portrayed in her book "Political Fictions"
Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 10/26/2001; ; 700+ words
; 00-00-0000 Interview: Joan Didion discusses the press and politicians...11:00 AM BOB EDWARDS, host: Joan Didion has a new book of essays on American...campaign of George Bush I. But Joan Didion would argue that although much...
|
|
|
Interview: Joan Didion discusses the press and politicans as they are portrayed in her book, "Political Fictions"
Transcript from: NPR Morning Edition; 10/26/2001; ; 700+ words
; 00-00-0000 Interview: Joan Didion discusses the press and politicans...11:00 AM BOB EDWARDS, host: Joan Didion has a new book of essays on American...campaign of George Bush I. But Joan Didion would argue that although much...
|
|
Interview: Joan Didion discusses her new book "Where I Was From," and why she still considers herself a Californian
Transcript from: NPR Special; 10/1/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...Special 10-01-2003 Interview: Joan Didion discusses her new book "Where...Karen Grigsby Bates, spoke to Joan Didion about her new book and her feelings...of it when she was young. Ms. JOAN DIDION (Author, "Where I Was From...
|
|
Joan Didion: a writer of scope and substance.
Magazine article from: Hollins Critic; 10/1/1989; ; 700+ words
; ...Establishing support for my claim that Joan Didion is a writer of scope is easy enough...maturing and expanding vision--Joan Didion's canon offers impressive support...authorial scope; in which case, Joan Didion demonstrates a breadth Of talent...
|
|
What they were magically thinking: when you're Joan Didion writing your first play, you're allowed to revise up until the last minute. An intimate look--also starring Vanessa Redgrave and David Hare--at one of Broadway's most anticipated new productions.
Magazine article from: New York; 3/26/2007; ; 700+ words
; EVEN FOR THE LIKES of Joan Didion, Vanessa Redgrave, and...that of a character named Joan Didion. Together these three...STARTING OFF THE DAY Didion in her kitchen, top...Hare's not buying it: Joan is there more than I am...
|
|
Joan Didion's backward glance; she's a New Yorker now, but the writer still has her California dreams.
Magazine article from: WWD; 4/27/1992; ; 700+ words
; NEW YORK -- Joan Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne...warns another. As a reporter sat with Didion on a recent afternoon -- the day of...apartment for a week. As it happens, Didion and Dunne's cross-country relocation...
|
|
The searcher.(Where I Was From by Joan Didion)(Book Review)
Magazine article from: The Nation; 7/12/2004; ; 700+ words
; Where I was From. By Joan Didion. Knopf. 226 pp. $23. In 1965...California, the novelist and essayist Joan Didion wrote "John Wayne: A Love Song...since visiting Estudio Churubusco, Joan Didion has become the heroine of a western...
|
|
Author Joan Didion examines truth behind the California myth
Newspaper article from: Oakland Tribune; 10/20/2003; ; 700+ words
; ...thing you notice when talking to Joan Didion on the phone is that she has quite...such a daunting resum and presence. Didion is the literati, a sleek beauty...find out what I'm thinking," Didion has been quoted as saying. "What...
|
|
A writer's journey through grief; Joan Didion explores the astonishing fragility of the life we think we know.(FEATURES)(BOOKS)(Book Review)
Newspaper article from: The Christian Science Monitor; 10/18/2005; 700+ words
; ...of us know until we reach it," Joan Didion tells us in The Year of Magical...book was done, her daughter died. Didion decided not to revise the text...The Year of Magical Thinking By Joan Didion Knopf 240 pp., $23.95 (c...
|
|
Joan Didion
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of World Biography
Joan Didion Although she is perhaps best known as a precise and graceful essayist, Joan Didion (born 1934) has also triumphed as a...with her husband, as a screenwriter. Joan Didion was born December 5, 1934, in Sacramento...
|
|
Didion, Joan
Book article from: Contemporary Novelists
DIDION, Joan Nationality: American. Born: Sacramento...Collins, 1993. * Critical Studies: Joan Didion by Mark Royden Winchell, Boston, Twayne, 1980, revised edition, 1989; Joan Didion by Katherine Usher Henderson, New York...
|
|
|
Dunne, John Gregory
Book article from: Contemporary Novelists
...B. in English 1954. Married Joan Didion, q.v. , in 1964; one daughter...1995. Plays Screenplays (with Joan Didion): Panic in Needle Park , 1971...wife and sometime collaborator, Joan Didion, is undoubtedly better known than...
|
|
Hollywood
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to American Literature
...dramatists and novelists who have spent time in Hollywood writing for films are Maxwell Anderson, Ray Bradbury, Bromfield, Joan Didion, Dreiser, John Gregory Dunne, Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Daniel Fuchs, Ben Hecht, Sidney Howard, George...
|
|
|
Play It as It Lays
Book article from: The Oxford Companion to American Literature
Play It as It Lays, novel by Joan Didion , published in 1970. Maria Wyeth, a 31‐year‐old former motion‐picture actress, separated...
|
