Article: William Safire, 79, authority on words, bare-knuckled pundit on politics

WASHINGTON - William Safire, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist and language maven for The New York Times, whose penchant for the barbed and memorable phrase first manifested itself in speeches he wrote for the Nixon White House, died yesterday of pancreatic cancer at a hospice in Rockville, Md. He was 79.

For more than three decades, Mr. Safire wrote twice weekly as the resident conservative columnist on the Times op-ed page. He also wrote the popular "On Language" column in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, exploring grammar, usage, and the origin of words. The column led to the publication of more than a dozen books about words and language.

He arrived at the Times in 1973, fresh from ...

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