Many thanks & a few farewells

For many years now, it has been our custom, as we approach the end of our publishing season, to recognize our most dedicated donors in this space. This pleasant task, which also affords us an opportunity to look back over the past year, is made all the more poignant because of the disruptions caused by the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. Our offices have been shuttered since mid-March, and it is unclear when the authorities will allow our World Headquarters in New York to reopen. Our staff is scattered across the country (and world)—Texas, Florida, Virginia, Connecticut, and even South Korea. This added a new layer of complication to the editorial process for our April, May, and June issues. It also prevented us from holding public events and seeing many of you.

But here we are. We have soldiered on. The New Criterion is a small not-for-profit enterprise that simply could not prevail without the support of its readers. We take no money from the government and so are doubly grateful for every gift, no matter the size. We are especially gratified that the number of people contributing to support our endeavors continues to grow. Every gift matters. We are particularly indebted to those who, by donating $25,000 or more to our efforts, qualify as members of The New Criterion’s Editors Circle. Now more than ever, you make our work possible. We are pleased to have this opportunity to register our gratitude not only for this important material support but also for the interest, care, and counsel so many of our supporters offer us. The truth is that most of those who help us are not just writers of checks but also intellectual comrades-in-arms, friends, and collaborators in the task of battling cultural amnesia and fostering honest and informed inquiry into the great questions that confront us as a civilization circa 2020.

As in years past, we would like to begin by acknowledging our debt to the late, lamented John M. Olin Foundation, which helped to start The New Criterion in the early 1980s, and to the late Donald Kahn, whose timely and munificent generosity rescued the magazine at a moment of exigent economic peril. In this same category of munificence belong the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and the Sarah Scaife Foundation, both of which have generously supported The New Criterion for decades. They are the conditiones sine qua non of our work. This year, we are also delighted to thank the Achelis & Bodman Foundation, Elizabeth Ailes, the Carson-Myre Charitable Foundation, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Brandon Fradd, the Gale Foundation, the Gilder Foundation, the Hickory Foundation, The Kleinschmidt Family Foundation, the Thomas D. Klingenstein Fund, Christopher Laconi, Ronald and Jo Carole Lauder, the Marcus Foundation, the Paul Marshall Charitable Foundation, the Fred Maytag Family Foundation, Don and Donna Riley, the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, the Diana Davis Spencer Foundation, and Helen Zell. Finally, we would like to acknowledge that great but too-seldom-recognized force for good, Anonymous, whose benefactions once again have been critical in helping us man the ramparts of cultural renewal. We are deeply grateful to you all. Thank you once again for your counsel, for your intellectual as well as your financial support. The New Criterion could not exist without you.

On a sadder note, we would also like to take a moment to mark the recent passing of the artist William Bailey, a contributor to our pages and a friend of the Editors; Martha Apgar, another friend and longtime supporter of the magazine; and Richard Gilder, a major contributor to so many worthy enterprises, including The New Criterion. Finally, it is with sorrow that we note the death of Esta Kramer, for some fifty years the devoted wife of our founding editor, Hilton Kramer. Requiescant omnes in pace.

This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 38 Number 10, on page 3
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