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Legacy at The New Yorker
Eleanor took the job as an copy editor for The New Yorker on November 5th, 1945. In the beginning of her career she edited for poetry, nonfiction, and fiction writings. After 10 years she began to solely edit nonfiction work. This was due to her logical approaches to work which posed to be more of a problem for fiction and poetry than it helped. Her editing was taken down to a molecular level and she was able to establish a flow into the articles. She strove for clarity and precise edits that would make the article work smoothly. Her understanding of grammar went far past just the subject and objects agreeing. She thought about the architecture not only in the sentence but around the sentence and paragraph. Her feedback was known as “Gould-proof” and often contained phrases like “How so? “This Clear? (not to me)” “NOT Grammar!” and even one time “Have we completely lost our mind?”. Eleanor’s job title was made up in the event that no existing title could ever encompass all the work she did on the job. The term “Grammarian” was coined in her honor. Around the staff she was known as “Miss Gould” and even after marrying she kept her maiden name.

The New Yorker style is now known for their clarity in their articles and this couldn’t have been done without their trusted Gammarian. It is said by many of The New Yorker staff that she had as significant of a role as many of the notable authors and editors in the staff, even shaping the language used by the magazine through her edits. She looked over nearly every of the thousands of articles the magazine wrote in her time there. In her 54 years on board the staff she rarely ever took a day off and was dedicated to her craft. It was said that she would spend long hours in her office working without distraction or daydreaming. Even after going completely deaf in 1990 she continued to work just as hard as ever by using her fax machine and notes written between coworkers to keep on pace. She would respond to her co-workers in a higher, birdlike, voice that was still understandable.

Many would describe Eleanor as indispensable to The New Yorker. Her edits were skeptical instead of cynical and always kept morality in play. Though there are many accounts of people praising her work and her intelligence she was a lot more humble about her work. She described her process as cleaning a room saying “I just try to make things right”. Though she is more modest it is evident that her work was spectacular was even noted in the very popular work “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr., revived by E.B. White saying that he was quite grateful to have Eleanor’s assistance in renewing the second edition.

Her edits can be seen in the works of E.B. White, Roger Angell, Wolcott Gibbs, Ved Mehta, Pauline Kael, Philip Hamburger, John Mcphee, and Lillian Ross (all nonfiction writers). She was loved by many writers and planned to stay as long as she could until a stroke she had at her desk in 1999 forced her into retirement. When she retired so did her position of Grammarian.