Farewell to PR

In this space in October 2002, we noted the death at ninety-four of our friend William Phillips, the founding co-editor (with Philip Rahv) of Partisan Review. In its great period, in the 1940s and 1950s, Partisan Review was a catalyzing force in American cultural and political debate. Throughout its history, largely because of Mr. Phillips’s editorial guidance, it was a home to candid and independent cultural criticism. It was recently announced that the current issue of PR—which features recollections of William Phillips by many of his former colleagues, friends, and admirers—will also be the magazine’s last issue. The editors of The New Criterion wish to salute William Phillips’s memory and the enlivening example of the magazine over which he presided with beneficent intelligence for more than five decades.

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 21 Number 9, on page 3
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