COMMENT
P
ARTISAN REVIEW has a new cover. Of course, the outside of a mag–
azine is not as important as its inside, but to some extent it does
reflect its personality. In general, good covers are appropriate to
the nature of a publication. For example,
Fortune
has a solid upper-class
look;
Time
has a down-to-earth appearance; the
New Criterion
has a
serious cover;
Commentary
announces that it has something to say; and
both the
New Republic
and the
Weekly Standard
boldly and colorfully
announce what is in them. We are too close
to
our own cover to define
it properly. However, we want to indicate that we are on top of trends
while perpetuating our tradition.
In addition, we also decided to join those magazines that are being
polybagged, so that all of our readers will get their copies in perfect con–
dition. Furthermore, we invite you to send us your impressions of the
way we are helping to usher in the new millennium. Happy New Year!
EK
THE SELECTION FROM RALPH ELLISON'S posthumous novel
Juneteenth
that appeared in the
New Yorker
(April
12,
1999)
was an unfortunate
example of cliches and overwriting, with a number of purple passages.
Yet it reminded me of some of the encounters [ had with Ellison.
One of the earlier incidents I recall happened in late
[962.
We were
about to go to press, and needed some more material for the magazine,
so I called up Ralph and asked him if he had something we could use.
He said, without any air of pomposity, that he had a selection from his
new novel. Since there was no time to mail it, he read it to me over the
phone. It sounded good, and I said, "O.K., send it to me."
It
was prob–
ably the only time that a manuscript was accepted at
Partisan Review
by being read over the phone. There were also instances of simple cama–
raderie, when I and my former wife spent many boozy evenings at the
Ellisons' apartment on the Upper West Side, with Ralph, Fanny, and
their huge police dog.
Another telling incident was a lunch I had with Ellison and Richard
Poirier at the faculty club at Rutgers University, where Ellison was then
writer-in-residence. Poirier had just been appointed head of the English
department, and he had not hired Ellison. In addition, Poirier was in
principle against writers-in-residence. As tensions rose at the lunch, I
tried to calm things down by asking Ellison what he thought of Lyndon
Johnson, who had recently become President of the United States. Elli–
son stiffened in his chair, stuck his chest out, and said solemnly, "As an
