Didion accepts the 2007 Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters at the 58th National Book Awards in New York. (Seth Wenig / Associated Press)
Didion poses in front of a portrait of her husband, screenwriter and novelist John Gregory Dunne, in her New York apartment. Didion’s memoir, “The Year of Magical Thinking,†deals with her grief after Dunne’s sudden death from a heart attack in December 2003. (Kathy Willens / Associated Press)
