E. J. Kahn Jr.; Writer for the New Yorker

E. J. Kahn Jr., 77, one of the New Yorker’s most prolific writers and shaper of the modern personality profile closely identified with that magazine. Kahn had been a staff writer for 57 of the New Yorker’s 69 years, and was well-known for his profiles of people ranging from David Rockefeller and John Hay Whitney to TV’s Judge Wapner and the “60 Minutes” staff. A New Yorker spokesman said he contributed more words to the magazine than any other writer. Kahn published 27 books, including profiles of Frank Sinatra and Coca-Cola, war reports from Korea, a history of Harvard University, an account of South Africa’s politics and two volumes of autobiography. On May 28 in Holyoke, Mass., of heart failure, a day after he was injured in a car crash.