Marjorie Williams

Marjorie Williams was born in Princeton, N.J., in 1958 and died in Washington, D.C., in 2005. She was a contributing editor to Vanity Fair, an editorial columnist for the Washington Post, and a frequent contributor to Slate and the Washington Monthly. Public Affairs has published two posthumous anthologies of Williams's writings. The first, "The Woman at the Washington Zoo: Writings on Politics, Family, and Fate," was a New York Times best-seller and won the PEN/Martha Albrand Nonfiction Award. A prepublication excerpt in Vanity Fair ("Hit By Lightning: A Cancer Memoir") won a National Magazine Award and was later included in "The Best American Essays 2006." The second collection, "Reputation: Portraits in Power," profiles prominent figures in late 20th century Washington. "The engagement is journalistic," observed Tim Rutten in a Los Angeles Times review of "Reputation," "but the antecedents are in the deep literature of social observation. Jane Austen and Edith Wharton come quickly to mind." About "The Woman at the Washington Zoo," Katha Pollitt wrote, "She was not just the best Washington journalist of her generation, she was one of the best journalists, period." Williams is survived by her husband, Timothy Noah, a senior writer at Slate, and her children, Alice and Will. More information about Williams and her writing is available at womanatthewashingtonzoo.com/