In a recent issue of the London Telegraph, the journalist
Harry Mount described The New Criterion as “America’s
leading review of the arts and intellectual life.” Many
people reading this will agree, though perhaps not all will
be happy about it. For the truth is that The New
Criterion, now completing its twenty-fourth year, is as
pugnacious and polemical as it is informative. We take
that bit about “the correction of taste,” quoted above, as
seriously as we do the bit about elucidating works of art.
Any publication that intervenes forthrightly in matters of
cultural controversy is bound to garner
a certain amount of enmity. That comes with the territory.
And besides, enemies are important: their ire helps to
certify the rightness of one’s own position. But no
publication like The New Criterion—conservative,
dedicated to the vocation of criticism—can survive without
friends as well as enemies. Since its inception nearly a
quarter-century ago, The New Criterion has been blessed
with dedicated friends. As has been our custom for the last
few years in our June issue, we are pleased to acknowledge
in this space the dedication and generosity of these
friends: without their support The New Criterion
simply could not continue. We are grateful to the John M.
Olin Foundation and its director, James Piereson. The Olin
Foundation closed its doors last year, but for nearly
twenty-five years it was a faithful supporter of our
efforts: we are pleased to have this occasion, once again,
to thank Mr. Piereson and the Olin Foundation for their
help. We are equally grateful to the Sarah Scaife Foundation
and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, both of which
have been stalwart supporters of our work for more than
twenty years. Their generous help not only has been a
welcome confirmation of the importance of what The New
Criterion stands for but also is absolutely essential to
our continuation. We are also grateful to the ever-growing
circle of Friends of The New Criterion: your gifts, large
and small, have been critical in helping us carry on in what
we, like many conservative non-profit enterprises, think of
as the “post-Olin” world. Finally, we wish to give special
acknowledgment to our friend and benefactor Donald Kahn. The
worthy causes he has aided are too numerous to list. But we
are every day cognizant of his exceptionally generous help.
Approaching the milestone of our silver
anniversary, we naturally are moved to reflect on what we’ve
accomplished in the last quarter-century. We are very proud
of what we have done at The New Criterion, but we are
deeply conscious that we could never have done it without
the help of our friends. Thank you again for your continued
confidence in our work.