Anyone who knows me or read my blog during the years it was most active is probably aware that Joan Didion was one of the authors I revered most as a young writer and someone whose work I continued to follow over the decades with an interest bordering on reverence. Spending a short time with her in her apartment for a Humanities Magazine piece on the occasion of her receiving the National Humanities Medal in 2012 was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. I’m sad she won’t be writing more books but grateful for the work she left behind.
From the archives: My review of Blue Nights for Barnes & Noble Review; Didion on psychiatric trends and diagnoses.