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Joan Didion became famous for reporting on the hippies in San Francisco
Photo: Kathy Willens / dpa
Author Joan Didion has described life on the US West Coast for decades - but her best-known book has been the personal processing of her husband's sudden death.
Didion has now died at the age of 87 from the effects of Parkinson's disease, as her publisher Knopf Doubleday confirmed to the German Press Agency.
Didion made a name for herself in the 1960s and 1970s as a journalist and with novels about life and hippie culture in California.
In 2005, the later bestseller »The Year of Magical Thinking« appeared, in which she dealt with the sudden death of her husband John Dunne.
Together with him, she had also written the screenplay for "A Star is Born" in 1976, which a few years ago was a hit movie starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
"Joan was a brilliant observer and listener who taught truths about our present and future wisely and subtly," said editor Shelley Wanger.
“Her writing is timeless and powerful, and her prose has influenced millions of people.
We will mourn her death, but celebrate her life. "
kim / dpa