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William Safire

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William Lewis Safire was an American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He was perhaps best known as a long-time syndicated political columnist for the New York Times and a regular contributor to "On Language" in the New York Times Magazine, a column on popular etymology, new or unusual usages, and other language-related topics.

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

Safire graduated from the Bronx High School of Science, a specialized public high school in New York City. He attended the 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.

He was a public relations executive from 1955 to 1960. Previously, he had been a radio and television producer and an Army correspondent. He was 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. 

Safire took a much-circulated black-and-white photograph of the event. 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 Spiro Agnew; he is known for creating Agnew's famous term, "nattering nabobs of negativism."

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