Marjorie Williams
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Marjorie Williams (January 13, 1958 – January 16, 2005) was an American writer, reporter, and columnist for '' Vanity Fair'' and ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', writing about American society and profiling the American "political elite."


Life and career

Williams was born in
Princeton, New Jersey The Municipality of Princeton is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton, New Jersey, Borough of Princeton and Pri ...
, to a scientist-turned-homemaker mother and a father who was an editorial director at
Viking Press Viking Press (formally Viking Penguin, also listed as Viking Books) is an American publishing company owned by Penguin Random House. It was founded in New York City on March 1, 1925, by Harold K. Guinzburg and George S. Oppenheimer and then acqu ...
. After attending
Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...
for two years, Williams dropped out in her junior year and moved to
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
to work in publishing. Williams had a flair for the business but preferred to go into journalism, and in 1986 she got a job as an editor for ''The Washington Post''. A year later she became a reporter for the paper's "Style" section. Williams' deft political profiles were an immediate success and eventually she branched out to '' Vanity Fair'', covering everyone from
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
to
Barbara Bush Barbara Bush (; June 8, 1925 â€“ April 17, 2018) was the first lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of the 41st president of the United States, George H. W. Bush. She was previously second lady of the United States fr ...
to
Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell ( ; – ) was an Americans, American diplomat, and army officer who was the 65th United States secretary of state from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American to hold the office. He was the 15th National Security ...
as well as penning profiles of her own struggles and foibles. She was also a member of ''
Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'' book club, a group of writers who regularly paired off to conduct online dialogs about recently-published fiction and nonfiction, and contributed occasional book reviews to the ''Washington Monthly''. In 2000 Williams became an op-ed columnist for the ''Post''. A year and a half later, she was diagnosed with
liver cancer Liver cancer, also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy, is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary in which the cancer starts in the liver, or it can be liver metastasis, or secondar ...
; in spite of being told she only had a few months left, Williams lived for more than three years. Her final ''Post'' column, written in November 2004, focused on her young daughter's
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
costume. In June 2011 the National Society of Newspaper Columnists named it one of the top 15 newspaper columns in American history. Williams died on January 16, 2005, three days after her 47th birthday. She was survived by her stepmother, three sisters, her husband
Timothy Noah Timothy Robert Noah (born 1958) is an American journalist, author, and a staff writer at ''The New Republic''. Previously he was labor policy editor for ''Politico'', a contributing writer at MSNBC.com, a senior editor of ''The New Republic'' ass ...
(of ''
Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...
''), and her two children. Her ashes were buried in
Rock Creek Cemetery Rock Creek Cemetery is an cemetery with a natural and rolling landscape located at Rock Creek Church Road, NW, and Webster Street, NW, off Hawaii Avenue, NE, in the Petworth (Washington, D.C.), Petworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., across ...
near the Adams Memorial. In November 2005 a posthumous collection of Williams's writings, edited by Noah, was published under the title ''The Woman at the Washington Zoo''. The book won PEN American Center's Martha Albrand Award For First Nonfiction and a
National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...
in the category of essays and criticism. The latter was for a previously unpublished essay in the book about Williams' experiences as a cancer patient, a shorter version of which appeared in ''Vanity Fair'' prior to the book's publication. A second anthology, ''Reputation: Portraits in Power'' was published in October 2008 ().


References


External links


''Slate'' obituary

Selection of ''Washington Post'' columns

Selection of ''Slate'' articles

Selection of ''Vanity Fair'' articles





Interview on C-Span
June 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Marjorie 1958 births 2005 deaths Harvard University alumni Deaths from cancer in Washington, D.C. Deaths from liver cancer in the United States American columnists The Washington Post journalists Vanity Fair (magazine) people Writers from Princeton, New Jersey American women columnists 20th-century American women 21st-century American women Burials at Rock Creek Cemetery