Joan Didion had died at the age of 87, her publisher A.A. Knopf has confirmed. The legendary essayist, novelist and screenwriter — who has long been revered as one of America’s most preminent writers — passed away at her Manhattan home Thursday morning due to complications from Parkinson’s disease. She is preceded in death by her husband, John Gregory Dunne, and their daughter, Quintana Roo. Didion is best known for chronicling the 1960s counterculture in her groundbreaking book of essays “Slouching Towards Bethlehem.” She also won the 2005 National Book Award for Nonfiction for best-selling memoir “The Year of Magic Thinking.” In 2012, she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by then-President Barack Obama, who described her as one of the “sharpest and most respected observers of American politics and culture.”
