William Safire dead at 79

The former Nixon speechwriter and New York Times columnist died Sunday of pancreatic cancer

Published September 28, 2009 2:35PM (EDT)

William Safire, the speechwriter for President Nixon who became a fixture in the New York Times, died Sunday. He was 79.

In his later years, Safire was best known as a columnist for the Times, where he worked for more than 30 years. Even after he stopped writing his political column, he continued his regular feature in the New York Times Magazine, "On Language," until this month.


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

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