People

By Martha Smilgis

"He never tires of the great flood of paper rushing in upon him. None of the rest of us can imagine surviving the demands of such a career; Shawn flourishes." So wrote Brendan Gill a decade ago of longtime New Yorker Editor William Shawn, whose endless capacity for work and relentless curiosity helped fashion that magazine into a weekly mine of essay, fiction and humor. But last spring, after serving 35 years as editor, Shawn, 79, was ousted by the magazine's new owner, S.I. Newhouse of Conde Nast. Many thought Shawn's career was over. Not so. At the invitation of President Roger Straus Jr., Shawn is moving to Farrar, Straus & Giroux, one of the few remaining independent publishing houses, as an editor. "Roger Straus and I hope to work out an arrangement such as the one described," Shawn says. "I have agreed to edit three or four books on an informal, friendly basis." Does Straus believe he has pulled off a publishing coup? "You bet I do," he says, adding that he would like Shawn to stay on "as long as he is happy. May it be a thousand years."

With reporting by David E. Thigpen/New York