His shyness was office (and New York) legend, as were his claustrophobia and fear of elevators; many of his colleagues maintain that he carried a hatchet in his briefcase, in case he became trapped. Shawn would buy articles and then not run them for years, if ever. Staff members were given offices and salaries even if they produced little for the magazine; Joseph Mitchell, whose work had appeared regularly during the 1950s and early 1960s, continued to come to his office from 1965 until his death in 1996 without ever publishing another word. Shawn gave writers vast space to cover their subjects, and nearly all of them (including Dwight Macdonald, Hannah Arendt, and England's Kenneth Tynan) spoke reverently of him. J. D. Salinger adored him, and dedicated Franny and Zooey to Shawn. Later years When Advance Publications bought the magazine in 1985, the new owners promised that the magazine's editorship would not change hands until Shawn chose to retire. But speculation about his successor, a longtime topic of publishing-world chatter, grew. Shawn had been editor for a very long time, and the usual criticism of the magazine—that it had become stale and dull—was growing more pointed. In retrospect, the journalist Joseph Nocera described him as "legendary, if wildly overrated." Advance chairman S.I. Newhouse forced Shawn out in February 1987, and—after reportedly telling Shawn that he would honor his request to name his deputy Charles McGrath to succeed him—replaced Shawn with Robert Gottlieb, the editor-in-chief at the well-regarded book publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Saturday Night Live executive producer Lorne Michaels, a longtime admirer, gave Shawn office space in the Brill Building, and he soon took an editorship at Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a largely honorary post that he held until his death in 1992. Awards and achievements In 1988, Shawn received the George Polk Career Award in recognition of his lifelong achievements. Personal life Shawn married journalist Cecille Lyon (1906–2005) in 1928, and the couple had three children: writer and actor Wallace Shawn, and twins Allen Shawn and Mary. Mary, who was eventually diagnosed with autism, was sent away from the family when she was eight years old to attend a special school, and later institutionalized. Allen became a composer. In 2007, he published a memoir, Wish I Could Be There, centering on his phobias. In 2010, he published a memoir, Twin, about his childhood and his relationship with his sister.