Joan Didion was born in December 5th 1934 in Sacramento, California and at a young age she was asking her mom to borrow her adult books to read. For her education she went to kindergarten and first grade before she started to move around because of her fathers involvement in World War 2. In late 1943 her family resettled is Sacramento after years of moving, but she used this experience to help write one of her seventeen books "Where I Was From" 2003. Growing up she went to UC-Berkley and left with a Bachelors of Arts in English, in her senior year she won a writing contest hosted by Vouge and the winning prize just so happened to be her job. Her writing style was influenced heavily Ernest Hemingway who taught her the meaning meanings within a sentence.

here is one of her essays on self respect http://mallaryjeantenore.wordpress.com/2008/11/17/an-essay-worth-sharing-joan-didions-on-self-respect/