Bratya shahuns biography of william james

American editor of The New Yorker (–)

William Shawn (néChon; August 31, – December 8, ) was an American magazine editor who edited The New Yorker from until

Early life and education

Shawn was born William Chon on August 31, , in Chicago, Illinois, to Benjamin T.

Chon,^[1] a cutlery salesman, and Anna Bransky Chon. He was the youngest of five. His older siblings were Harold (), Melba (), Nelson (), and Myron ().

Bratya shahuns biography of william During a career with the New Yorker magazine that spanned more than 50 years, William Shawn shaped its distinctive content and style, influencing writers across the U. Described by a reporter for Time magazine as "a quiet tyrant of talent and taste," William Shawn made his mark as the longtime editor of the New Yorker, a weekly publication known for witty cartoons, quality fiction, trend-setting nonfiction, and thoughtful social commentary. Nothing on its pages escaped Shawn's careful attention; his painstaking attention to detail and unwavering commitment to truth, logic, and clarity were legendary. So, too, was his gentle, courtly, and self-effacing demeanor, which endeared him to his staff. As an anonymous New Yorker staff member declared upon Shawn's death, "No editor ever ruled a large and complex magazine as absolutely as he ruled this one; yet no editor, perhaps, ever imparted to so many writers and artists as powerful a sense of freedom and possibility.

His family were non-observant Jews from Eastern Europe.^[2] William dropped out of the University of Michigan after two years ()^[3] and began working.

Career

Early years

Shawn traveled to Las Vegas, New Mexico,^[4] where he worked at the local newspaper, The Optic.

He returned to Chicago and worked as a journalist. Around he changed the spelling of his last name to Shawn. In , he and his wife, Cecille, moved to New York City, where he tried to start a career as a composer.^[2]

At The New Yorker

Soon after their arrival in New York City, Cecille took a fact checking job at The New Yorker magazine, and her husband began working there in ^[2] His temperament contrasted with that of the magazine's founder Harold Ross.

Colleagues later described him as "shy", "deferential", having a "strange presence". Lillian Ross recalled that Shawn believed in the value of every life, even that of Hitler. Shawn stayed with the magazine for 53 years.

As assistant editor

Shawn rose to assistant editor of The New Yorker and oversaw the magazine's coverage of World War II.

He had been trying to get a story out of John Hersey for years. After Life magazine rejected Hersey's profile of future president John F. Kennedy, Shawn seized the opportunity. The story ran in TheNew Yorker and was reprinted in the Reader's Digest. Hundreds of thousands of copies were distributed during Kennedy's campaigns for the U.S.

House of Representatives and the presidency.^{[5]:&#;37–41&#;} In , Shawn persuaded Ross to run Hersey's story about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima as the entire contents of one issue. He left for a few months shortly after that to write on his own, but soon returned.^{[citation needed]}

As editor

A few weeks after Ross died in December , Shawn was named editor.^[1] His quiet style was a marked contrast to Ross's noisy manner.

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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.

Shawn would buy articles and then not run them for years, if ever.

Staff members were given offices and salaries even if they produced little for the magazine; Joseph Mitchell, whose work had appeared regularly during the s and early s, continued to come to his office from until his death in without ever publishing another word.

Bratya shahuns biography of william shakespeare Shawn broadened the vision of the The New Yorker to include paramount fiction writing, thoughtful social commentary and international controversy. Under his guidance, the publication emerged as a leading literary magazine of its time. Throughout his career, Shawn maintained a commitment to truth and clarity unrivaled by any editor of the time. Allowing his writers and artists significant creative freedom, Shawn earned not only respect but also a genuine affection from both colleagues and readers across the nation. William Shawn was born in Chicago in , the youngest of six children.

Shawn gave writers vast space to cover their subjects, and nearly all of them (including Dwight Macdonald, Hannah Arendt, and England's Kenneth Tynan) spoke reverently of him. J. D. Salinger adored him, and dedicated Franny and Zooey to Shawn.^[6]

While The Addams Family comics debuted in The New Yorker in , Shawn banned them from the publication following the release of the TV series, as he did not want the image of his publication associated with a mainstream sitcom.

The ban remained in effect long after the TV series concluded, persisting until Shawn's retirement in ^[7]

Later years

When Advance Publications bought the magazine in , the new owners promised that the magazine's editorship would not change hands until Shawn chose to retire. But speculation about his 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. In retrospect, the journalist Joseph Nocera described him as "legendary, if wildly overrated."^[8] Advance chairman S.I. Newhouse forced Shawn out in February ,^[2] and—after reportedly telling Shawn that he would honor his request to name his deputy Charles McGrath to succeed him—replaced Shawn with Robert Gottlieb, the editor-in-chief at the well-regarded book publisher Alfred A.

Knopf.^[1]

Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels, a longtime admirer, gave Shawn office space in the Brill Building, and he soon took an editorship at Farrar, Straus and Giroux,^[1] a largely honorary post that he held until his death in

Awards and achievements

In , Shawn received the George Polk Career Award in recognition of his lifelong achievements.^[9]

Personal life

Shawn married journalist Cecille Lyon (–) in , and the couple had three children: writer and actor Wallace Shawn, and twins Allen Shawn and Mary.

Mary, who was eventually diagnosed with autism, was sent away from the family when she was eight years old to attend a special school, and later institutionalized.^[10] Allen became a composer. In , he published a memoir, Wish I Could Be There, centering on his phobias.^[10] In , he published a memoir, Twin, about his childhood and his relationship with his sister.^[11]

In , Shawn's longtime New Yorker colleague Lillian Ross wrote in a memoir that she and Shawn had had an affair from until his death, with Lyon's knowledge.^[12] Ross said that Shawn was also active in raising her adopted son, Erik.

The memoir's publication was controversial, in part because Shawn deeply valued his privacy.^[13]

Influences and legacy

• In , Indian author Ved Mehta, who worked with Shawn at The New Yorker for almost three decades, published a biography of Shawn, Remembering Mr. Shawn's New Yorker: The Invisible Art of Editing.^[14]

In popular culture

References