TRIBUTES TO WILLIAM PHILLIPS
217
to season, but
Partisan
has had a steady history of serious and lasting
criticism, of what William defined as "a constant exercise of discrimi–
nation," "the ability to steer a proper course between the claims of the
past and the trends that [speak] of the future." A touchstone which he,
and Edith Kurzweil with him, have never failed to touch.
In his
1983
memoir-an indispensable record of writers' idiosyn–
crasies in tumultuous times-William laments "our present state of ide–
ological confusion in which any notion, conventional or crackpot, can
find some justification and rationalization." What was merely abrasive
in
1983
has become terrifying in the mad era of suicide murders. Else–
where in his memoir William remarks of Saul Bellow that "at his best
[he] has been marvelously sensitive to the ironies of existence." The
ironies of existence! These high, wry, sly, even shy words can serve as
William's self-portrait. What began at the fringes of the John Reed Club
nearly seventy years ago grew, under William's tutelage, into one of the
most significant, the most venerated, of all intellectual periodicals.
I knew William late, but not too late to comprehend that he was,
both early and late, scribe, redactor, and above all enactor of the ironies
of existence.
NORMAN PODHORETZ
I first met William Phillips nearly fifty years ago, and I can still remem–
ber how surprised I was by him. Having already gotten to know Philip
Rahv a bit, I foolishly and thoughtlessly took it for granted that William
would be the same kind of character. Yet as it turned out, far from being
gruff, William was genial and expansive; far from being malicious,
William was tolerant and irenic; and far from being overbearing,
William was easygoing and relaxed .
The one quality that did not surprise was his surpassing intelligence.
Even after a brief conversation, it became obvious that his mind was as
quick, cultivated, and supple as I had expected. And yet I would dis–
cover in due course that, even there, William was different, not only
from Rahv but from most other denizens of the
Partisan Review
circle.
Not for William the flashiness, the flamboyance, the razzle-dazzle so
highly prized by his fellow New York intellectuals. He could juggle ideas
and construct brilliant arguments with the best of them, but there was
Norman Podhoretz is Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and Editor-at–
Large of
Commentary.
His most recent book is
The Prophets.
