This is a look at the life and career of Eleanor Gould Packham, the Mensan proofreader who spent 54 years at the New Yorker magazine.

Some excerpts from her obituary in the NYT:

leanor Gould Packard, whose questions, comments and admonitions on the proofs of thousands of articles for The New Yorker for 54 years defined for many the care (some writers said obsessiveness) taken in editing the magazine, died Sunday in Manhattan. She was 87.

Her death was announced by her daughter, Susan Hathaway Packard.

Miss Gould, as she was known to the staff, challenged the logic, syntax, grammar, flow, usage, punctuation and vocabulary of a legion of nonfiction writers: E. B. White, Roger Angell, Wolcott Gibbs, Ved Mehta, Pauline Kael, Philip Hamburger, John McPhee, Lillian Ross. Many at The New Yorker believed the precisely penciled Gould proofs sustained its suavity of style.

David Remnick, the magazine's editor, once said: "I think if there is an indispensable person here, it's Eleanor Gould. The relationship to her is as intimate as it gets; she has been inside my sentences."  ...

Her work was not easily encompassed in a job title, and the magazine never saw a need to give her one. She was not a fact-checker, though she did find errors. She was not a story editor, copy editor or proofreader. She did not enter the process until an article had been examined by lawyers and editors and was in galley proof, close to the last minute. She worked her way down both margins, penciling corrections and suggestions in a legible hand, always providing her rationale.

"A miracle to watch," said Edith Iglauer, an editor who once worked with her. "The words danced across the page."

As all editors know, showing such a thing to a tetchy or insecure writer might induce a tantrum. "Not every writer gets to see a Gould proof," Mr. Angell said while she was still on the job. "It's a challenge. You have to take a Gould proof seriously because she is a scrupulous reader, but you have to know what to ignore." If everything she recommended had been carried forward, he said, "it would be like the purest water - absolutely tasteless."

Yet Mr. Remnick said on her death, "If it's true The New Yorker is known for the clarity of its prose, then Miss Gould had as much to do with establishing that as its more famous editors and writers."