Author and essayist Joan Didion, whose precise social and personal commentary in such classics as The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking made her a uniquely clear-eyed critic of turbulent times, has died. She was 87.

Joan Didion, seen here in 2005, has died, her publisher announced on Thursday. She was 87. (Kathy Willens/The Associated Press)

Joan Didion, the revered author and essayist whose precise social and personal commentary in such classics as The White Album and The Year of Magical Thinking made her a uniquely clear-eyed critic of turbulent times, has died. She was 87.

Didion’s publisher Penguin Random