Biography
Personal life
Shawn was born into a prominent Jewish family in New York City, where he continues to reside. He is the son of William Shawn, longtime editor of The New Yorker, and journalist Cecille Shawn (née Lyon); his brother Allen is a composer. Shawn attended The Putney School, a private liberal arts high school in Putney, Vermont, and graduated with a B.A. in history from Harvard University. He studied economics and philosophy at Oxford, originally intending to become a diplomat; he also traveled to India as an English teacher, on a Fulbright program. Since 1979, he has made a...
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