Ah, Shit: John Leonard's Dead.

In his prime, John Leonard's scorched-earth reviews were without equal, with the possible exception of Pauline Kael. Others will say plenty, I hope, so because I love you I'll reproduce a short paragraph from my prized first edition of This Pen for Hire.

Herein Leonard addresses a particularly egregious case of copyediting in The New York Times:

This was the only time during my year and a half as a Times reviewer that such a thing occurred--although once I was asked to change a phrase which described John Lindsay as "like a younger brother or a clubfoot; we are stuck with him."

He will be missed.