Wayne Lawson, Vanity Fair's Executive Literary Editor, Dies at 94 After 40-Year Run
Updated
Updated · The New York Times · Oct 9
Wayne Lawson, Vanity Fair's Executive Literary Editor, Dies at 94 After 40-Year Run
1 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 9
Summary
Wayne Lawson died Sept. 23 at a Manhattan hospital at 94, ending a four-decade tenure as Vanity Fair’s executive literary editor.
Lawson helped shape the magazine’s signature coverage of wealth, class and culture after Tina Brown revived Vanity Fair in 1984 and recast it as a chronicle of power.
Tina Brown called him the magazine’s “secret weapon,” crediting his exacting editing with refining major work by writers including Marie Brenner.
That work included influential Vanity Fair stories on the tobacco whistle-blower later adapted into 1999 film “The Insider,” Enron’s collapse and Donald Trump’s first divorce.