Doublethink
Former New Yorker editor
William Shawn "was terrified of people, and I am too, pretty much," says
Mark Helprin (left). "I have a social phobia. But he did too. So we got along very well. ...When I went to the New Yorker, I'd show up out of the elevator on my hands. I’d show up at the reception desk and say, 'I'm here,' and the receptionist would say, 'Uh, OK, I'll buzz you in.' And I would walk down the hall, go into my editor’s office on my hands. So Mr. Shawn thought I was very peculiar, and that was good, he liked that."
