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)
