About a week ago, our profession (journalism, writing in general) lost one of the legends of our time: William Whitworth, a famed and much beloved editor, first at The New Yorker, and then Exec. Editor of The Atlantic for nearly 20 years, during which time he won 9 National Magazine Awards for the magazine. On March 8, at the age of 87, Bill died near Little Rock, Ark., the town where he had grown up and cut his teeth as a young newspaper reporter.

During my time writing for The Atlantic, in the 1990s, Bill became a mentor to me, then a friend, and afterward, an important advisor to this magazine, Craftsmanship. Throughout those years, I gathered so many pearls of wisdom from Bill I could have turned them into an entire set of pearl necklaces.

Some of the finest of his pearls were captured in this pitch-perfect remembrance published in The Atlantic a few days after his death: theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/w…

If you have even the slightest interest in the finer points of masterful writing, and masterful editing, I urge you to give this smart, touching, and beautifully written piece a read; then a nod of thanks to Bill for his myriad contributions to our craft, and to building a more enlightened world.