William Shawn, paper and pencil

Charles McGrath, writing about the New Yorker editor William Shawn:

Shawn carried a list inside his breast pocket — a piece of copy paper folded lengthwise and covered with notes in his tiny, feathery handwriting — and sometimes he would pull it out and consult it, crossing off items one by one with a silver mechanical pencil.

“Remembering Mr. Shawn” (The New Yorker, December 28, 1992).

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Joseph Mitchell, paper and pencil