“Nobody stands taller than those willing to stand corrected.”
William Safire (1929 – 2009) was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter.
He is best known for his long-time syndicated political column for the New York Times and the author of “On Language” in the New York Times Magazine, a column on popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics from its inception.
Safire’s book Safire’s Political Dictionary was part of our 2015 Gift Guide and is available from Amazon.com.
Before joining The Times, Mr. Safire was a senior White House speechwriter for President Nixon. He had previously been a radio and television producer and a U.S. Army correspondent. He began his career as a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune. From 1955 to 1960, Safire was vice president of a public relations firm in New York City, then became president of his own firm. He was responsible for bringing Mr. Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev together in the 1959 Moscow kitchen debate. In 1968, he joined the campaign of Richard Nixon.
He is the author of Freedom (1987), a novel of Lincoln and the Civil War. His other novels include Full Disclosure (1977), Sleeper Spy (1995) and Scandalmonger (2000). His other titles include a dictionary, a history, anthologies and commentaries.