One of Sacramento's most famous writers is dead at 87-years old due to an ongoing battle with Parkinson's disease. Joan Didion rose to fame as a writer of California culture during the 1960s. Born December 5th, 1934 in Sacramento, Didion graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1956 with an English degree. During her senior year, she won a writing contest sponsored by Vogue magazine. While working at Vogue, she wrote her first novel, "Run, River." In 1968, she gained fame for her essay collection "Slouching Toward Bethlehem," which focused on the counter-culture in San Francisco.
Her writing went on to inspire the creator of the Sac-centric film "Lady Bird". The film’s star Saoirse Ronan told CapRadio in 2017 that she’d never been to Sacramento, but that she had “been given a lot of Joan Didion to read in the year leading up to the shoot. Just to get the idea of the sort of mindset of a Sacramentan.” Many influential people took to social media to praise Didion for her work and what she did to put Sacramento on the map.
Didion passed away in New York City on Thursday according to an announcement from her publisher.