(FILES) In this file photo taken on July 10, 2013 US President Barack Obama puts his arm around 2012 National Humanities Medal receipient author Joan Didion as she arrives on stage during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. - Author Joan Didion, a US literary icon credited with ushering in "new journalism" with her essays on Los Angeles life in the tumultuous 1960s, died at 87, on December 23, 2021, The New York Times reported. Didion died at her home in Manhattan of Parkinson's disease, the newspaper said. (Photo by Mandel NGAN / AFP)