The estate of US author Joan Didion, who died in December at the age of 87, has been auctioned - and met with much greater interest than expected.

For example, a pair of sunglasses by the writer sold for $27,000, according to the online auction website. A desk fetched $60,000 and an oil painting depicting Didion, estimated at up to $5,000, fetched $110,000. A stack of empty notebooks fetched $11,000.

In total, around two million dollars were raised. This estate auction was "madness", commented the "New York Magazine". Didion made a name for himself as a journalist and for writing novels about life and hippie culture in California in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2005 she published the later bestseller "The Year of Magical Thinking", in which she dealt with the sudden death of her husband John Dunne. Together with him she wrote the screenplay for "A Star is Born" in 1976, which became a cinema hit a few years ago in a remake with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.