New York - Brendan Gill, a New Yorker magazine staff writer for 51 years, has died in harness in New York at the age of 83, writes Sean Cronin. His book on the magazine, Here at the New Yorker, enjoyed critical acclaim and big sales. The editor of the New Yorker, Tina Brown, said: "We are all absolutely devastated by Brendan's sudden death. He was in many ways our beau ideal - the ultimate New Yorker."
Mr Gill often said: "I started out at the place where I wanted most to be as a writer." He was hired by Harold Ross, the founding editor of the magazine. Mr Gill worked with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis to save New York's architectural heritage, in the course of which both were responsible for saving Grand Central Station, a historical landmark, from destruction. Architecture was among the many topics he wrote about for the magazine over the years. He knew Eleanor Roosevelt and Dorothy Parker and among the many Irish writers he befriended in New York was Brendan Behan.