WILLIAM PHILLIPS
493
up in the tide of worldwide pacifist and anti-nuclear agitation . But,
of course, a number of liberals have resisted the seductive and self–
justifying assumption of the Left that to be on the side of progress
and decency, one has to be "gauchist"- that to be "gauchist" is itself a
positive value and ideal. These liberals now know that Left or Right
stances are, as they say, part of the problem not the solution, and
that each issue must be examined on its own.
Such is the policy that
Partisan Review
seeks to follow .
It
is, we
think , an extension to our hopes and dilemmas today of the prin–
ciples we stated in our early editorial. We are still opposed to
political reflexes, cultural cant , and literary obfuscation. Our
history, we feel, has demonstrated that we are committed to
publishing those works that best represent the creative and critical
intelligence of our time.
W. P.
• • • •
Of the original contributors, some have died, but several
writers who appeared in early numbers of
Partisan Review
are repre–
sented in this Anniversary Issue. Sidney Hook and Lionel Trilling,
who had much to do with the political and literary direction of the
magazine at the start, have characteristic contributions (Trilling post–
humously). We regret that Philip Rahv, who had a major role as an
editor, and Fred Dupee, who was also a leading figure in the early life
of the magazine, could not be in this issue. Other writers associated at
the beginning were Lionel Abel, Eleanor Clark, Clement Greenberg,
Mary McCarthy, Dwight Macdonald, and Diana Trilling. The sec–
ond generation represented here includes Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer,
Irving Howe, Alfred Kazin, Norman Mailer, Bernarcl Malamud,
Robert Motherwell, Norman Podhoretz, Philip Roth, and Arthur
Schlesinger,
Jr.
The other figures have joined us more recently.
Those invited to contribute to the Anniversary Issue were asked
to submit a poem, story, essay, part of something they were working
on, or a brief statement about how their views have changed over the
years . All contributors were asked to make their pieces short, be–
cause we wanted to include as many writers as possible within the
obvious space limitations.
Fifty years is a long time, and we hope the contributors to this
volume give some sense of what made our longevity possible.
Immediately following is the original editorial statement from
the first issue of the new
Partisan Review.
