Brooding, detached, apocalyptic and neurasthenic are all words that have been applied to the writings of Joan Didion. While generally respected for her purposefully staccato and elliptical fiction, Didion has also been hailed as one of the best female prose stylists of her generation for her nonfiction. (As of 1997, she had written five novels and five books of nonfiction.) In collaboration with her husband, novelist-journalist John Gregory Dunne (best known for his gritty stories of the Irish Catholic American experience), Didion has crafted several screenplay adaptations of books by herself, Dunne and others. The duo has also dabbled in made-for-cable TV-movies.

Didion first registered on the literary radar and built a devoted cult following with her often despairing, highly subjective yet clear-eyed reports on the disintegrating American cultural scene of the 1960s and 70s. Her elegantly glum sensibility first flowered in the celebrated 1968 essay collection, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem". Her dark musings about the sunny West earned her the moniker of "California's chronicler laureate" from NEW YORK magazine.

Didion's second novel, "Play It As It Lays" (published in 1970), told the story of a faded movie actress drifting through a Hollywood characterized by drugs, passionless sex, despair and ennui. A critical triumph and a commercial bestseller, this work consolidated her celebrity, earned her a six-figure income and a National Book Award nomination.

The screenwriting team of Didion and Dunne made their bow as scripters of the acclaimed NYC-lensed feature "The Panic in Needle Park" (1968). Noted as a brutally realistic depiction of the world of heroin dealing and addiction, the film marked a career breakthrough for star Al Pacino and fashion photographer-turned-director Jerry Schatzberg. Didion has likened the craft of screenwriting to doing a crossword puzzle and she and Dunne view show business as a less serious and fulfilling practice than writing books. Yet, they don't seem to mind the monetary rewards. In 1972, Didion and Dunne adapted her novel "Play It As It Lays" as a dramatic feature. Helmed by Frank Perry and boasting a cast headlined by Tuesday Weld and Anthony Perkins, the film was greeted by generally favorable reviews, particularly for its performances.

The writing duo hit paydirt by dreaming up the concept and toiling on early drafts of the 1976 remake of "A Star Is Born", shrewdly managing to get "points" in the profits of the film and the soundtrack. The great success of this Barbra Streisand-Kris Kristofferson vehicle propelled them to both the A-list and Easy Street. A novel, 1977's "Book of Common Prayer", and an essay collection, 1979's "The White Album", followed. Five years passed before Didion and Dunne returned to film work, co-scripting the adaptation of Dunne's acclaimed novel "True Confessions" (1981). This film, boasting powerhouse performances from Robert Duvall and Robert De Niro as a pair of Irish-American brothers, a volatile cop and a cool, corruptible priest climbing the Church hierarchy, garnered mixed but respectful reviews and moderate business.

Didion spent most of the subsequent 15 years focusing on her family--she and Dunne have an adopted daughter Quintana Roo--and writing books and articles, essays and novels. Eschewing personal essays for the most part, she focused her coolly discerning gaze on places far away from California in nonfiction works including "Salvador" in 1983 and "Miami" in 1987. A quintessential Californian whose family lived in the Sacramento Valley for five generations, Didion, with her family, moved to NYC's Upper East Side in 1988.

Subsequent works including "After Henry" (published in 1992 by Simon & Schuster) and other essay collections offered such attractions as her reportage on the 1988 Presidential race and a piece on the Spur Posse in Lakewood, CA. It was as if Didion wanted to silence those critics who have accused her of always writing about herself or those who felt her essays revealed a white, upper-middle class bias and comparatively conservative politics. Didion's later works have revealed a significant shift to the left.

1996 marked a milestone year for Didion. She published her first novel in 12 years, "The Last Thing He Wanted"--a political thriller, after a fashion, about a middle-aged female journalist accused of attempting to assassinate a US senator at the behest of Nicaragua's Sandinista government. (The story is set in 1984). Reporters were also spotlighted in "Up Close and Personal" (1996), the first Didion-Dunne feature collaboration in 15 years. This old-fashioned romantic drama, loosely adapted from Alanna Nash's nonfiction account of the career of ill-fated news anchor Jessica Savitch, teamed Robert Redford and Michelle Pfeiffer. The result was criticized for its sentimental departures from the unpleasant realities of the source material. Furthermore, despite the formidable star power on display, the film failed to live up to box-office expectations. Nonetheless, Didion and Dunne's name in the credits has continued to be perceived as a sign of quality. Accordingly, they started out 1997 with a half dozen projects in development.