Nicknames of the Literary Elite, Part Two
After yesterday's nicknames post, I received several indignant emails about leaving out perhaps the most elite nicknamed person of all time: J.D. Salinger, who—as readers of tributes to him know—was called "Jerry" by friends. But there are more.
In fact, in the lovely Lillian Ross piece I linked to above, there's another one: the late New Yorker editor William Shawn, whom Ross refers to as "Bill."
Others to note:
New Yorker writer Seymour Hersh: Sy
Author and New York Times writer William Grimes: Biff
New York University professor and former New Yorker writer Lawrence Wechsler: Ren
New York Times political reporter Katherine Q. Seelye: Kit
Late New York Times writer R.W. Apple: Johnny
And even though you should never call David Remnick "Dave," you're best off using these people's (more obvious) shortened names:
Atlantic National Correspondent James Fallows Jim (along with "Rick" Hertzberg, another one of Jimmy Carter's former speechwriters)
Slate editor Jacob Weisberg: Jake
Time editor Richard Stengel: Rick
New Republic editor Franklin Foer: Frank
New Yorker writer Katherine Boo: Kate