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Nov 27, 2009
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Safire, William L.

Safire, William L. (săf'īr") [key], 1929–, American journalist and speechwriter, b. New York City. A former reporter and public-relations executive, he became a speechwriter (1968–73) for Richard Nixon during his 1968 presidential campaign. From 1973 to 2005 his editorial columns in the New York Times provided a consistently conservative and outspoken perspective on American politics, and he won a Pulitzer Prize for his commentary in 1978. His On Language column (1979–) for the New York Times Magazine both explores the richness of modern American English and decries abuses of the language. Safire has also written a historical novel, Scandalmonger (2000), a fact-based tale of a journalist who tarnished the reputations of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson, and a number of books on language.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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