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William Safire

William Lewis Safire (/ˈsæfaɪər/; Safir; December 17, 1929 – September 27, 2009[1][2]) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He was a long-time syndicated political columnist for The New York Times and wrote the "On Language" column in The New York Times Magazine about popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics.

William Safire
Safire receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006
BornWilliam Lewis Safir
(1929-12-17)December 17, 1929
New York City, US
DiedSeptember 27, 2009(2009-09-27) (aged 79)
Rockville, Maryland, US
Occupation
GenreNon-fiction
SubjectPolitics
SpouseHelene Belmar Julius
Children2

Early life

Safire was born William Lewis Safir in New York City, the son of Ida (née Panish) and Oliver Craus Safir.[3][4] His family was Jewish and of Romanian origin on his father's side.[5] Safire later added the "e" to his surname for pronunciation reasons, although some of his relatives continued to use the original spelling.[6]

Safire graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, a specialized public high school in New York City. He attended S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University but dropped out after two years. He delivered the commencement address at Syracuse in 1978 and 1990, and became a trustee of the university.[7]

Career

 
William Safire memo to H. R. Haldeman to be used in the event that Apollo 11 ended in disaster.

He was a public relations executive from 1955 to 1960. Previously, he had been a radio and television producer and an Army correspondent. He worked as a publicist for a homebuilder who exhibited a model home at an American trade fair at Sokolniki Park in Moscow in 1959—the one in which Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev had their Kitchen Debate. A much circulated black-and-white photograph of the event was taken by Safire.[8] Safire joined Nixon's campaign for the 1960 presidential race, and again in 1968. After Nixon's 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and for Spiro Agnew; he is known for having created Agnew's famous term, "nattering nabobs of negativism".

Safire prepared a speech called "In Event of Moon Disaster" for President Nixon to deliver on television if the Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the Moon.[9] According to the plans, Mission Control would "close down communications" with the LEM and a clergyman would have commended their souls to "the deepest of the deep" in a public ritual likened to burial at sea. Presidential telephone calls to the astronauts' wives were also planned. The speech originated in a memo from Safire to Nixon's chief of staff H. R. Haldeman in which Safire suggested a protocol the administration might follow in reaction to such a disaster.[10][11] The last line of the prepared text contained an allusion to Rupert Brooke's First World War poem "The Soldier".[11] In a 2013 piece for Foreign Policy magazine, Joshua Keating included the speech as one of six entries in a list of "The Greatest Doomsday Speeches Never Made".[12]

He joined The New York Times as a political columnist in 1973. Soon after joining the Times, Safire learned that he had been the target of "national security" wiretaps authorized by Nixon, and, after observing that he had worked only on domestic matters, wrote with what he characterized as "restrained fury" that he had not worked for Nixon through a difficult decade "to have him—or some lizard-lidded paranoid acting without his approval—eavesdropping on my conversations".[13]

In 1978, Safire won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary on Bert Lance's alleged budgetary irregularities; in 1981, Lance was acquitted by a jury on all nine charges. Safire's column on October 27, 1980, entitled "The Ayatollah Votes", was quoted in a campaign ad for Ronald Reagan in that year's presidential election.[14] Safire also frequently appeared on the NBC's Meet the Press.

Upon announcing the retirement of Safire's political column in 2005, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of The New York Times, said:

The New York Times without Bill Safire is all but unimaginable, Bill's provocative and insightful commentary has held our readers captive since he first graced our Op-Ed Page in 1973. Reaching for his column became a critical and enjoyable part of the day for our readers across the country and around the world. Whether you agreed with him or not was never the point, his writing is delightful, informed and engaging.

Safire served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004. After ending his op-ed column, he became the full-time chief executive of the Dana Foundation, where he was chairman from 2000. In 2006, Safire was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush.

Portions of Safire's FBI file were released in 2010. The documents "detail wiretapping ordered by the Nixon administration, including the tapping of Safire's phone".[15]

Writing on English

In addition to his political columns, Safire wrote a column, "On Language", in the weekly The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death. Many of the columns were collected in books.[1] According to the linguist Geoffrey Pullum, over the years Safire became less of a "grammar-nitpicker," and Benjamin Zimmer cited Safire's willingness to learn from descriptive linguists.[16] Another book on language was The New Language of Politics (1968),[1] which developed into what Zimmer called Safire's "magnum opus," Safire's Political Dictionary.[17]

Political views

Safire described himself as a "libertarian conservative". A Washington Post story on the ending of his op-ed column quotes him on the subject:

I'm willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian. [After the 9/11 attacks,] I was the first to really go after George W. on his treatment of prisoners.

After voting for Bill Clinton in 1992, Safire became one of the leading critics of Clinton's administration. Hillary Clinton in particular was often the target of his ire. He caused controversy in a January 8, 1996, essay when, after reviewing her record, he concluded she was a "congenital liar". She did not respond to the specific instances cited, but said that she didn't feel offended for herself, but for her mother's sake. According to the president's press secretary at the time, Mike McCurry, "the President, if he were not the President, would have delivered a more forceful response to that on the bridge of Mr. Safire's nose".[18]

Safire was one of several voices who called for war with Iraq, and predicted a "quick war" and wrote: "Iraqis, cheering their liberators, will lead the Arab world toward democracy."[19] He consistently brought up the point in his Times columns that an Iraqi intelligence agent met with Mohamed Atta, one of the 9/11 attackers, in Prague,[20] which he called an "undisputed fact". According to the CIA and the FBI, they were unable to confirm or deny the validity of this assertion. The source who made these allegations is alleged to have become concerned that such a meeting could have harmed his career. Nonetheless, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh do deny that the meeting took place. Safire insisted that the theory was true and used it to make a case for war against Iraq. He also incorrectly predicted that "freed scientists" would lead coalition forces to "caches [of weapons of mass destruction] no inspectors could find".[21]

Safire was staunchly pro-Israel. He received the Guardian of Zion Award of Bar-Ilan University in 2005. President George W. Bush appointed him to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008.[22]

Death

Safire died from pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Rockville, Maryland, on September 27, 2009, aged 79. He was survived by his wife, Helene Belmar (née Julius); their children, Mark and Annabel; and granddaughter, Lily.[1][23]

Publications

The following is a partial list of his writings:

Language

  • The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time: Wit and Wisdom from the Popular Language Column in the New York Times Magazine (2004) ISBN 0-7432-4244-0
  • No Uncertain Terms: More Writing from the Popular "On Language" Column in The New York Times Magazine (2003) ISBN 0-7432-4243-2
  • Take My Word for It (1986) ISBN 0-8129-1323-X
  • On Language (1980) Times Books ISBN 0-8129-0937-2
  • Fumblerules: A Lighthearted Guide to Grammar and Good Usage (1990) ISBN 0-440-21010-0

Novels

Edited collections

Political works

  • Safire's Political Dictionary, 3rd edition, Random House, NY, 1968, 1972, 1978. ISBN 0-394-50261-2
  • The Relations Explosion
  • Plunging into Politics
  • Before the Fall: An Inside View of the Pre-Watergate White House
  • The First Dissident: The Book of Job in Today's Politics, Random House, NY, 1992

Speeches

  • "In Event of Moon Disaster", a presidential speech Safire wrote (but Nixon never delivered)

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d McFadden, Robert D. (September 27, 2009). "William Safire, Nixon Speechwriter and Times Columnist, Is Dead at 79". The New York Times. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
  2. ^ Safire, William (1986). Take My Word for It: More on Language. Times Books. ISBN 978-0-8129-1323-1. p. 185.
  3. ^ "William Safire Biography". BookRags.com. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  4. ^ "No Bull Bill – People & Politics". Washingtonian. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  5. ^ Safire, William (1981). On language. Avon Books. p. 236. ISBN 0-380-56457-2.
  6. ^ "Leonard Safir, 71, Early TV Producer And an Anthologist". timesmachine.nytimes.com. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
  7. ^ Schmuckler, Carol (April 1, 1995). "The Bond of a Lifetime". Syracuse University Magazine. 11 (3): 40. Retrieved February 23, 2021.
  8. ^ "Safire, William. "The Cold War's Hot Kitchen," The New York Times, Friday, July 24, 2009". The New York Times. July 24, 2009. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  9. ^ "Scanned copy of the 'In event of moon disaster' memo" (PDF). National Archives and Records Administration.
  10. ^ Jim Mann (July 7, 1999). "The Story of a Tragedy That Was Not to Be". L.A. Times. p. 5. Retrieved October 27, 2007.
  11. ^ a b William Safire (July 12, 1999). "Essay; Disaster Never Came". The New York Times. from the original on October 29, 2007. Retrieved October 27, 2007.
  12. ^ Keating, Joshua E. (August 1, 2013). "The Greatest Doomsday Speeches Never Made". Foreign Policy. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
  13. ^ Safire, William (August 9, 1973). "The Suspicious 17; ESSAY". The New York Times.
  14. ^ "Reagan campaign ad". Livingroomcandidate.org. November 4, 1979. Retrieved October 17, 2013.
  15. ^ Gresko, Jessica (April 13, 2010) "William Safire's FBI File Unlocked", Associated Press
  16. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (September 28, 2009). "William Safire, 1929-2009". Language Log. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  17. ^ Zimmer, Benjamin (September 28, 2009). "Remembering the Language Maven". Word Routes: Exploring the Pathways of our Lexicon. Retrieved September 30, 2009.
  18. ^ Safire, William (February 4, 1996). "On Language;Congenital, Liar, Punch". The New York Times.
  19. ^ "Iraqis, cheering their liberators, will lead the Arab world toward democracy"."To Fight Freedom's Fight", The New York Times, January 21, 2002
  20. ^ "Missing Links Found", The New York Times, November 24, 2003
  21. ^ "Jubilant V-I Day", The New York Times, April 10, 2003
  22. ^ Lake, Eli (May 13, 2008). "Bush Visit May Boost Olmert". New York Sun.
  23. ^ Folkenflik, David. "Political Columnist William Safire Dies At 79". NPR. Retrieved October 17, 2013.

General and cited references

  • Larry Berman and Bruce W. Jentleson, "Bush and the Post-Cold War World: New Challenges for American Leadership" in The Bush Presidency: First Appraisals. eds. Colin Campbell, S.J., Bert A. Rockman. 1991. Chatham House. ISBN 0-934540-90-X.

External links

  • Columnist Biography, William Safire, from The New York Times
  • Archive of political columns from The New York Times
  • William Safire Retires Times Op-Ed Column, a January 2005 story from NPR
  • William Safire to End Op-Ed Run at N.Y. Times, a November 2004 article from The Washington Post
  • William Safire Papers at Syracuse University, a guide to his personal papers.
  • Clinton's reaction after Safire calls his wife a liar, from the National Archives and Records Administration
  • Profile: William Safire, SourceWatch
  • FBI files on William Safire
  • Appearances on C-SPAN
  • William Safire at Find a Grave
  • The short film Safire on Safire, Part I (1987) is available for free download at the Internet Archive.
  • The short film Safire on Safire, Part II (1987) is available for free download at the Internet Archive.

william, safire, william, lewis, safire, aɪər, safir, december, 1929, september, 2009, american, author, columnist, journalist, presidential, speechwriter, long, time, syndicated, political, columnist, york, times, wrote, language, column, york, times, magazin. William Lewis Safire ˈ s ae f aɪer ne Safir December 17 1929 September 27 2009 1 2 was an American author columnist journalist and presidential speechwriter He was a long time syndicated political columnist for The New York Times and wrote the On Language column in The New York Times Magazine about popular etymology new or unusual usages and other language related topics William SafireSafire receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006BornWilliam Lewis Safir 1929 12 17 December 17 1929New York City USDiedSeptember 27 2009 2009 09 27 aged 79 Rockville Maryland USOccupationAuthorcolumnistlexicographerjournalistpolitical speechwriterGenreNon fictionSubjectPoliticsSpouseHelene Belmar JuliusChildren2 Contents 1 Early life 2 Career 2 1 Writing on English 3 Political views 4 Death 5 Publications 6 Citations 7 General and cited references 8 External linksEarly life EditSafire was born William Lewis Safir in New York City the son of Ida nee Panish and Oliver Craus Safir 3 4 His family was Jewish and of Romanian origin on his father s side 5 Safire later added the e to his surname for pronunciation reasons although some of his relatives continued to use the original spelling 6 Safire graduated from the Bronx High School of Science a specialized public high school in New York City He attended S I Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University but dropped out after two years He delivered the commencement address at Syracuse in 1978 and 1990 and became a trustee of the university 7 Career Edit William Safire memo to H R Haldeman to be used in the event that Apollo 11 ended in disaster He was a public relations executive from 1955 to 1960 Previously he had been a radio and television producer and an Army correspondent He worked as a publicist for a homebuilder who exhibited a model home at an American trade fair at Sokolniki Park in Moscow in 1959 the one in which Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev had their Kitchen Debate A much circulated black and white photograph of the event was taken by Safire 8 Safire joined Nixon s campaign for the 1960 presidential race and again in 1968 After Nixon s 1968 victory Safire served as a speechwriter for him and for Spiro Agnew he is known for having created Agnew s famous term nattering nabobs of negativism Wikisource has original text related to this article In Event of Moon Disaster Safire prepared a speech called In Event of Moon Disaster for President Nixon to deliver on television if the Apollo 11 astronauts were stranded on the Moon 9 According to the plans Mission Control would close down communications with the LEM and a clergyman would have commended their souls to the deepest of the deep in a public ritual likened to burial at sea Presidential telephone calls to the astronauts wives were also planned The speech originated in a memo from Safire to Nixon s chief of staff H R Haldeman in which Safire suggested a protocol the administration might follow in reaction to such a disaster 10 11 The last line of the prepared text contained an allusion to Rupert Brooke s First World War poem The Soldier 11 In a 2013 piece for Foreign Policy magazine Joshua Keating included the speech as one of six entries in a list of The Greatest Doomsday Speeches Never Made 12 He joined The New York Times as a political columnist in 1973 Soon after joining the Times Safire learned that he had been the target of national security wiretaps authorized by Nixon and after observing that he had worked only on domestic matters wrote with what he characterized as restrained fury that he had not worked for Nixon through a difficult decade to have him or some lizard lidded paranoid acting without his approval eavesdropping on my conversations 13 In 1978 Safire won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary on Bert Lance s alleged budgetary irregularities in 1981 Lance was acquitted by a jury on all nine charges Safire s column on October 27 1980 entitled The Ayatollah Votes was quoted in a campaign ad for Ronald Reagan in that year s presidential election 14 Safire also frequently appeared on the NBC s Meet the Press Upon announcing the retirement of Safire s political column in 2005 Arthur Sulzberger Jr publisher of The New York Times said The New York Times without Bill Safire is all but unimaginable Bill s provocative and insightful commentary has held our readers captive since he first graced our Op Ed Page in 1973 Reaching for his column became a critical and enjoyable part of the day for our readers across the country and around the world Whether you agreed with him or not was never the point his writing is delightful informed and engaging Safire served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 After ending his op ed column he became the full time chief executive of the Dana Foundation where he was chairman from 2000 In 2006 Safire was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W Bush Portions of Safire s FBI file were released in 2010 The documents detail wiretapping ordered by the Nixon administration including the tapping of Safire s phone 15 Writing on English Edit This section needs expansion You can help by adding to it June 2021 In addition to his political columns Safire wrote a column On Language in the weekly The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death Many of the columns were collected in books 1 According to the linguist Geoffrey Pullum over the years Safire became less of a grammar nitpicker and Benjamin Zimmer cited Safire s willingness to learn from descriptive linguists 16 Another book on language was The New Language of Politics 1968 1 which developed into what Zimmer called Safire s magnum opus Safire s Political Dictionary 17 Political views EditSafire described himself as a libertarian conservative A Washington Post story on the ending of his op ed column quotes him on the subject I m willing to zap conservatives when they do things that are not libertarian After the 9 11 attacks I was the first to really go after George W on his treatment of prisoners After voting for Bill Clinton in 1992 Safire became one of the leading critics of Clinton s administration Hillary Clinton in particular was often the target of his ire He caused controversy in a January 8 1996 essay when after reviewing her record he concluded she was a congenital liar She did not respond to the specific instances cited but said that she didn t feel offended for herself but for her mother s sake According to the president s press secretary at the time Mike McCurry the President if he were not the President would have delivered a more forceful response to that on the bridge of Mr Safire s nose 18 Safire was one of several voices who called for war with Iraq and predicted a quick war and wrote Iraqis cheering their liberators will lead the Arab world toward democracy 19 He consistently brought up the point in his Times columns that an Iraqi intelligence agent met with Mohamed Atta one of the 9 11 attackers in Prague 20 which he called an undisputed fact According to the CIA and the FBI they were unable to confirm or deny the validity of this assertion The source who made these allegations is alleged to have become concerned that such a meeting could have harmed his career Nonetheless Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al Shibh do deny that the meeting took place Safire insisted that the theory was true and used it to make a case for war against Iraq He also incorrectly predicted that freed scientists would lead coalition forces to caches of weapons of mass destruction no inspectors could find 21 Safire was staunchly pro Israel He received the Guardian of Zion Award of Bar Ilan University in 2005 President George W Bush appointed him to serve on the Honorary Delegation to accompany him to Jerusalem for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel in May 2008 22 Death EditSafire died from pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Rockville Maryland on September 27 2009 aged 79 He was survived by his wife Helene Belmar nee Julius their children Mark and Annabel and granddaughter Lily 1 23 Publications EditThe following is a partial list of his writings Language The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time Wit and Wisdom from the Popular Language Column in the New York Times Magazine 2004 ISBN 0 7432 4244 0 No Uncertain Terms More Writing from the Popular On Language Column in The New York Times Magazine 2003 ISBN 0 7432 4243 2 Take My Word for It 1986 ISBN 0 8129 1323 X On Language 1980 Times Books ISBN 0 8129 0937 2 Fumblerules A Lighthearted Guide to Grammar and Good Usage 1990 ISBN 0 440 21010 0Novels Scandalmonger 2000 ISBN 0 684 86719 2 Sleeper Spy 1995 ISBN 0 679 43447 X Freedom A Novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 1987 ISBN 0 385 15903 X Full Disclosure 1978 ISBN 0 385 12115 6Edited collections Lend Me Your Ears Great Speeches in History 1997 ISBN 0 393 04005 4 Words of Wisdom More Good Advice 1989 ISBN 0 671 67535 4 Good Advice 1982 quotations compiled with his brother Leonard Safir ISBN 0 517 08473 2Political works Safire s Political Dictionary 3rd edition Random House NY 1968 1972 1978 ISBN 0 394 50261 2 The Relations Explosion Plunging into Politics Before the Fall An Inside View of the Pre Watergate White House The First Dissident The Book of Job in Today s Politics Random House NY 1992Speeches In Event of Moon Disaster a presidential speech Safire wrote but Nixon never delivered Citations Edit a b c d McFadden Robert D September 27 2009 William Safire Nixon Speechwriter and Times Columnist Is Dead at 79 The New York Times Retrieved September 27 2009 Safire William 1986 Take My Word for It More on Language Times Books ISBN 978 0 8129 1323 1 p 185 William Safire Biography BookRags com Retrieved October 17 2013 No Bull Bill People amp Politics Washingtonian Retrieved October 17 2013 Safire William 1981 On language Avon Books p 236 ISBN 0 380 56457 2 Leonard Safir 71 Early TV Producer And an Anthologist timesmachine nytimes com Retrieved January 14 2022 Schmuckler Carol April 1 1995 The Bond of a Lifetime Syracuse University Magazine 11 3 40 Retrieved February 23 2021 Safire William The Cold War s Hot Kitchen The New York Times Friday July 24 2009 The New York Times July 24 2009 Retrieved October 17 2013 Scanned copy of the In event of moon disaster memo PDF National Archives and Records Administration Jim Mann July 7 1999 The Story of a Tragedy That Was Not to Be L A Times p 5 Retrieved October 27 2007 a b William Safire July 12 1999 Essay Disaster Never Came The New York Times Archived from the original on October 29 2007 Retrieved October 27 2007 Keating Joshua E August 1 2013 The Greatest Doomsday Speeches Never Made Foreign Policy Retrieved December 8 2016 Safire William August 9 1973 The Suspicious 17 ESSAY The New York Times Reagan campaign ad Livingroomcandidate org November 4 1979 Retrieved October 17 2013 Gresko Jessica April 13 2010 William Safire s FBI File Unlocked Associated Press Zimmer Benjamin September 28 2009 William Safire 1929 2009 Language Log Retrieved September 30 2009 Zimmer Benjamin September 28 2009 Remembering the Language Maven Word Routes Exploring the Pathways of our Lexicon Retrieved September 30 2009 Safire William February 4 1996 On Language Congenital Liar Punch The New York Times Iraqis cheering their liberators will lead the Arab world toward democracy To Fight Freedom s Fight The New York Times January 21 2002 Missing Links Found The New York Times November 24 2003 Jubilant V I Day The New York Times April 10 2003 Lake Eli May 13 2008 Bush Visit May Boost Olmert New York Sun Folkenflik David Political Columnist William Safire Dies At 79 NPR Retrieved October 17 2013 General and cited references EditThis article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations October 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Larry Berman and Bruce W Jentleson Bush and the Post Cold War World New Challenges for American Leadership in The Bush Presidency First Appraisals eds Colin Campbell S J Bert A Rockman 1991 Chatham House ISBN 0 934540 90 X External links Edit Wikiquote has quotations related to William Safire Columnist Biography William Safire from The New York Times Archive of political columns from The New York Times William Safire Retires Times Op Ed Column a January 2005 story from NPR William Safire to End Op Ed Run at N Y Times a November 2004 article from The Washington Post William Safire Papers at Syracuse University a guide to his personal papers Clinton s reaction after Safire calls his wife a liar from the National Archives and Records Administration Profile William Safire SourceWatch FBI files on William Safire Appearances on C SPAN William Safire at Find a Grave The short film Safire on Safire Part I 1987 is available for free download at the Internet Archive The short film Safire on Safire Part II 1987 is available for free download at the Internet Archive Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title William Safire amp oldid 1115822006, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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