Joan Didion was born in 1934 and spent the first decade of her life moving frequently (her father was in the Army Air Corps) before settling in Sacramento, California, where her family has deep roots. She is a towering figure of American nonfiction, in addition to having a successful career as a Hollywood script doctor and novelist. She spent most of her career working closely with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, until his death, which is documented in one of her most famous works, 2004’s The Year of Magical Thinking. She is known for the clarity of voice in her work and her keen sense of observation and detail.

Didion was entering her thirties when these pieces began to be published in high profile magazines like the Saturday Evening Post, and she had spent the majority of her twenties in New York working at Vogue before marrying Dunne, who helped her edit her first novel. The two moved to California and adopted a daughter, Quintana, and the period of her life in which she wrote these essays became an enduring image: a quiet, observant woman, open about her anxiety and frequent migraines, who nevertheless drove a yellow Corvette and was becoming a famous figure in the film and journalism scenes.