Samuel S. Vaughan

Samuel S. Vaughan of Tenafly, a book editor who worked with and befriended top authors, most notably the polysyllabic William F. Buckley, died Monday. He was 83.

The cause was stroke complications, said his wife, Jo.

Mr. Vaughan studied journalism at Penn State and in 1952 started in the rights department of Doubleday & Co. in New York. He held many sales and editorial posts, and had titles including president, publisher and editor in chief in his 33 years there. In a 1972 article commemorating Doubleday's 75th anniversary as a family-controlled enterprise, The New York Times cited Mr. Vaughan's reputation as a "literary connoisseur and sympathetic friend of authors" who still kept an eye on the bottom line.

Mr. Vaughan edited Dwight D. Eisenhower's memoirs, which meant visits to the former president's Gettysburg, Pa., farm. "That was one of the high spots of Sam's life," his wife said. "The Gettysburg connection was very important to him."

Among the authors Mr. Vaughan edited at Doubleday, and later at Random House, were Arthur Hailey, Margaret Truman, Leon Uris, Stephen King and Fannie Flagg. It was Mr. Vaughan who persuaded Buckley, the conservative icon and political columnist, to try his hand at a novel.

At lunch one day, Mr. Vaughan asked his friend what he was reading. A terrific thriller, "The Day of the Jackal," Buckley said.

Their exchange, as recalled by Buckley, was recounted in Buckley's 2008 obituary in the Los Angeles Times. "In fact, I resent being here because I could be reading that book. So Sam said, 'Why don't you write a novel?' And I said, 'Sam, why don't I write a trumpet concerto?'x"

Mr. Vaughan urged Buckley to pen "Saving the Queen," the first of 11 spy novels starring the dashing CIA agent Blackford Oakes.

As for editing Buckley, a man of prodigious vocabulary, Mr. Vaughan once used the words "exasperation" and "admiration."

Tensions in Teaneck

In the early 1990s, Mr. Vaughan edited a book that hit close to home: "Color Lines," an account of racial tensions in Teaneck arising from the fatal shooting of a black teenager by a white policeman.

The author, Record columnist Mike Kelly, said Wednesday that Mr. Vaughan "didn't just want to sit back and wait for a writer to finish a manuscript he wanted to walk the journey." Kelly said he and Mr. Vaughan spent countless hours at a Starbucks talking about every step of "Color Lines." At one meeting, the editor asked Kelly if he had ever fired a gun.

"I told him that I once fired a shotgun at a skeet shooting range," Kelly recalled. "He said, 'No, I mean a pistol.' Sam's point was that he wanted me to understand what happens when a police officer fires a gun." Kelly then arranged to take a portion of a deadly force course at the Bergen County Police Academy.

When the The first draft of Kelly's manuscript clocked in at was 800-plus pages. Mr. Vaughan ordered 150 pages cut. Think of the manuscript as a mattress, he told Kelly. "You don't need to take out all the stuffing. Just take out a piece of straw here, another piece of straw there."

Mr. Vaughan confined his own writing to a history of his Tenafly church the Church of the Atonement and three children's books: "Who Ever Heard of Kangaroo Eggs?" "New Shoes" and "The Two-Thirty Bird."

"His children inspired those books," Jo Vaughan said. "With all his busy-ness, he was a presence in his children's lives." He was a good dad."

Mr. Vaughan, a 57-year resident of Tenafly, is survived by his wife of 62 years; his children, Jeffrey of Ankeny, Iowa, Leslie Vaughan of Englewood, Dana Vaughan of Jersey City and David Vaughan of Manhattan; three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be Saturday at noon at the Church of the Atonement, Tenafly. Barrett Funeral Home is handling arrangements.

Email: levin@northjersey.com