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Famous Adoptees or Adopters

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Joan Didion, American writer (b. 1934)

Didion and her husband, John Gregory Dunne, also a writer, adopted their daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, at birth in 1966. Quintana became a photographer and editor. A series of prolonged illnesses ended her life in 2005 at age 39. She died one month before the release of Didion's memoir The Year of Magical Thinking (2005), an account of the grief-filled year that followed the death of her husband in 2003.

Didion's works often explore the despair of contemporary American life, a condition resulting from the disintegration of morality and values. She is known for a cool and almost brittle style that emphasizes the concrete. Her novels include Run River (1963), A Book of Common Prayer (1977), Salvador (1983), and The Last Thing He Wanted (1996). Among her books of essays are Slouching toward Bethlehem (1968) and The White Album (1979), groundbreaking analyses of then-contemporary life and culture that combine the personal with the topical. Excerpted from Columbia Encyclopedia.

Fun Fact: Didion and her husband collaborated on several screenplays, including A Star Is Born and True Confessions.

Photo source: David Shankbone

Next: Walt Disney, producer of animated films (1901–1966)

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