William Shawn, the longtime editor of The New Yorker who provided a nurturing home for writers such as John Updike, James Thurber and E.B. White, has died. He was 85.
Shawn's son, the actor Wallace Shawn, told The New York Times his father died of a heart attack Tuesday at his New York City apartment.For decades, Shawn was the shy, retiring heart of the nation's best-known literary magazine. He commissioned every article, approved every word on every page and stroked every writer and artist.
He changed an institution that never seemed to change.