She was generally perceived as not just a literary giant, but also a cultural icon.
Didion's best-selling memoir "The Year of Magical Thinking" (2006) was later adapted for stage with Vanessa Redgrave portraying the author.
Before his career ever took off, Harrison Ford was a personal carpenter to the Dunne family who became so close, Didion would send him first editions of her books as Christmas gifts.
She had an adopted daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne Michael, was born on March 3, 1966 and died on August 26, 2005 of natural causes.
Photographer Julian Wasser captured many of her portraits including the famous pose of her with her 1969 Corvette Stingray at her home on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.
Though she was rarely photographed without a cigarette in her hand, she reportedly didn't smoke as much as one might have imagined.
She was the daughter of Eduene (Jerrett) and Frank Reese Didion, a finance officer in the Army Air Corps. She was of mostly German, English, Welsh, and Irish heritage, with her surname originating in Germany.