Unlike his revered and formal predecessor, who wore jackets and ties, saw people by appointment and was addressed as “Mr. Easing the apprehensions of many New Yorker aficionados, he made few and mostly minor changes over five years. New critics were hired, and Talk of the Town commentaries were opened to more writers and were no longer written anonymously. In 1992, Tina Brown, the British editor of Vanity Fair, replaced Mr. Gottlieb in an amicable transition and introduced splashy changes. “I can write perfectly well — anybody who’s educated can write perfectly well.

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Persons: Mr, Shawn, ” Mr, Gottlieb, “, ”, Raymond Bonner, Judith Thurman, Diane Ackerman, Robert Stone, Richard Ford, Tina Brown, Eustace Tilley Organizations: Yorker, Knopf, The New York Observer Locations: Central, British