EDITOR'S NOTE
Rothschild, Matthew
EDITOR'S NOTE Matthew Rothschild Peregrinations The outpouring has been overwhelming. Since Erwin Knoll, the Editor of this magazine for the past twenty-one years, died a month ago, we've been...
...In the last four weeks, I've heard from more than a dozen reporters who told me that Erwin published their first piece, or that Erwin gave them a push in the left direction...
...And then, when I came to work early this week, someone had written out in white and yellow chalk on the sidewalk in front of our office the complete text of the First Amendment...
...And I talked about something I neglected to mention last month in these pages: Erwin's invaluable helpfulness to young, up-and-coming journalists...
...Ed Garvey, a member of the Democratic Party, argues for the possibility of recapturing the Party from within...
...Pat Aufderheide, Daniel Ellsberg, Ralph Nader, and Daniel Schorr all spoke, and then about ten others stood up and reminisced about Erwin...
...Erwin loved classical music...
...I write this on December 4. On December 7, there will be one final memorial service for Erwin, this one at the San Francisco Press Club...
...This is custom around here...
...Organized by Shirley Lens, the event is co-sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Center for Investigative Reporting, Adam Hochs-child, the Institute for Alternative Journalism, KQED, the Media Alliance, Mother Jones, Pacific News Service, and the San Francisco Weekly...
...Erwin's wife, Doris, requested Schubert's "Trout" Quintet, and as the musicians played, a peregrine falcon swooped outside the windows overlooking Lake Mendota...
...And so we'll be returning to this issue in the months ahead...
...This month, we address one of the crucial issues of the moment: What should the Left do about the hapless Democrats...
...And Jesse Jackson offers two possibilities: a left-wing challenge within the Democratic Party, or an independent run for the Presidency in 1996...
...And he was a great mentor to me...
...Memorial services were held across the country...
...For my part, I talked about Erwin's courage, conviction, kindness, humor, and love...
...Daniel Cantor of The New Party makes his case...
...The programs for the San Francisco memorial and the Madison memorial contained a quotation from Jean-Paul Sartre...
...I'm going to edit barefoot here for a while, but I'll follow the trail he blazed, leaving a slightly different imprint, I'm sure, but holding fast to that progressive banner...
...It's been my great fortune to have been Erwin's understudy all these years...
...These are not the Left's only options...
...There was also classical music here in Madison at the memorial on November 13, attended by 450 people...
...We had two very Madison expressions of sympathy that Erwin would have enjoyed...
...Molly Ivins bids Erwin a fond farewell in her column...
...In the twelve years that I worked with Erwin here at this magazine, he taught me the trade: how to edit, how to write on my own, and how to speak in public...
...Erwin's younger son, Jonathan, was going through Erwin's study when he saw this pinned on the wall: "Naturally, in the course of my life, I have made lots of mistakes, large and small, for one reason or another, but at the heart of it all, every time I made a mistake it was because I was not radical enough...
...And we are reprinting a piece of Erwin's own writing, "Homecoming in Vienna," which was published in The Progressive in April 1973...
...it didn't have to be...
...Indeed, Erwin was a great mentor to two generations of left-wing journalists...
...Erwin's elder son, David, gave a wonderful eulogy, articulating what we all felt so deeply—that Erwin "visited a richness upon us...
...Erwin's name wasn't mentioned...
...In Washington, D.C., on Saturday, November 12,130 people gathered to remember Erwin and celebrate his life...
...It was typical Erwin...
...And he taught me politics—independent, unpragmatic, uncompromised, undiluted, visionary, radical politics...
...And we do have options—we cannot be captive to a right-wing Democratic Party that ushers in the Gramms and the Gingriches...
...He taught me how to take the moral high ground, and how to uphold the progressive banner...
...We are honoring Erwin in this month's issue with a special four-page "Letters-to-the-Editor" section—a mere sampling of the mail we've received...
...Fittingly, an old family friend of Erwin's, David Rabin, who organized the event, played the cello with a few other classical musicians...
...At the bottom, the person wrote: "We will not forget you...
...Since Erwin Knoll, the Editor of this magazine for the past twenty-one years, died a month ago, we've been inundated with calls and letters from subscribers, former colleagues, comrades on the Left, friends, and total strangers—all shocked by the news, all suffering the political loss as well, especially in these gloomy hours of Gramm and Gingrich...
...The day after he died, someone flung open our doors, yelled "Erwin lives," and walked on...
...I'm grateful, as is Doris, to everyone who has commemorated Erwin...
...And I know I will not be able to fill his shoes...
Vol. 59 • January 1995 • No. 1
