- William Shawn
William Shawn (
August 31 ,1907 –December 8 ,1992 ) was an American magazine editor who edited "The New Yorker " from 1952 until 1987.Education and Early Life
"Mr. Shawn", as he was nearly always known, was born in
Chicago, Illinois , the son of Benjamin W. and Anna (Bransky) Chon. He dropped out of theUniversity of Michigan after two years (1925–1927) and went toLas Vegas, New Mexico , where he worked on the local paper, the "Optic". He returned to Chicago and worked as a journalist. Around 1930 he changed the spelling of his last name to "Shawn." In 1932, he and his wife, Cecille, went to New York City, where he tried to start a career as a composer. Soon after their arrival, Cecille took a fact-checking job at "The New Yorker," and her husband began working there in 1933. He would stay at the magazine for 53 years.Time at "The New Yorker"
He rose to assistant editor of The New Yorker and oversaw the magazine's coverage of
World War II . In 1946, he persuaded the magazine's founder and editor,Harold Ross , to runJohn Hersey 's story about the atomic bombing ofHiroshima as the entire contents of one issue. He left for a few months shortly after that to write on his own, but soon returned. A few weeks after Ross died in December 1951, Shawn was named editor.Shawn's quiet style was a marked contrast to Ross's noisy manner. Whereas Ross constantly wrote letters to his contributors, Shawn hated to share anything, especially on paper. His shyness was office (and New York) legend, as were his claustrophobia and fear of elevators; many of his colleagues maintain that he carried a hatchet in his briefcase, in case he became trapped. He was secretive, aloof, and cryptic about his plans for the magazine and its contents. Shawn would buy articles and then not run them for years, if ever. Members of the staff were given offices and salaries, even if they produced little for the magazine;
Joseph Mitchell , at one time a writer whose work appeared regularly, continued to come to his office from 1965 until his death in 1996 without ever publishing another word. But Shawn did give writers vast amounts of space to cover their subjects, and nearly all of them spoke reverently of him.J.D. Salinger , in particular, adored him, dedicating his "Franny and Zooey" to Shawn.Later years
When
Advance Publications bought the magazine in 1985, the new owners promised that the magazine's editorship would not change hands until Shawn chose to retire. But speculation about Shawn's successor, a longtime topic of publishing-world chatter, grew. Shawn had been editor for a very long time, and the usual criticism of the magazine--that it had become stale and dull--was growing more pointed. Advance chairman S.I. Newhouse forced Shawn out in February 1987, and--after reportedly telling Shawn that he would honor his request to name his deputy Charles McGrath to succeed him--replaced Shawn withRobert Gottlieb , the editor-in-chief at the well-regarded book publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Shawn was given office space in theBrill Building by "Saturday Night Live " executive producerLorne Michaels , a longtime admirer, and soon took an editorship atFarrar, Straus and Giroux , a largely honorary post that he held until his death in New York City in 1992.In 1988, he received the
George Polk Career Award .Personal life
Shawn married Cecille Lyon in 1928, and the couple had three children. One is the writer and character actor
Wallace Shawn . Another son,Allen Shawn , married "New Yorker" writerJamaica Kincaid . Allen's twin sister, Mary, is autistic and lives in an institution in Delaware. In 2007 Allen Shawn published a memoir, "Wish I Could Be There", centering on his own phobias. In 1996, Shawn's longtime "New Yorker" colleague Lillian Ross revealed in a memoir that she and Shawn had had an affair from 1950 until his death, with Mrs. Shawn's knowledge. Ross reported that Shawn was active in the upbringing of Ross's adopted son, Erik.Influences
He was portrayed in the 2005 film "Capote" by
Bob Balaban . In 1998, the Indian authorVed Mehta , who had worked with Shawn at "The New Yorker" for almost three decades, published a biography of Shawn entitled "Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing".Further information
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A21723202 History of The New Yorker magazine under Shawn]
* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A21723860 William Shawn's biography and career]
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