TRIBUTES TO WILLIAM PHILLIPS
221
imperfections which they could right. The literature of the time reflected
this, and many of a great generation of roomy minds-Saul Bellow and
Mel Lasky, for instance-began their literary lives in the pages of
Parti–
san
or in the front office of
Partisan,
where they sometimes waited for
review copies they could sell.
If
the place was right, so was the time. The thirties were the heyday
of both literature and politics . The struggle over the Stalinist version of
communism caused deep and bitter rifts, many of which were exposed,
worked over, and settled in
Partisan Review.
But
Partisan
was not just
about politics .
It
was about literature and ideas. As
Encounter
did later,
Partisan
brought the intellectual world to our doorsteps, and we were
much the richer for it.
The man I barely got to know was kindly, much of the time. Scattered
through the reminiscences of others, this is clear, and this was also the
aspect of him that emerged best in the latter part of his life that he spent
at Boston University. He was also, as good men often are, at times can–
tankerous and querulous-as with Hannah Arendt, of whom he said,
"Who does she think she is? Aristotle?"
What was preeminently clear about the William we knew at Boston
University was that in a long active life there were few important lessons
that he had failed to learn, and that often the lessons learned had cost
him dearly. They had summoned up a form of personal courage which
I find entirely admirable. A man who changed sides in the middle of one
of the great battles of his century is going to be excoriated by his former
friends- and sometimes, I suspect, patronized by his new friends. In
that sense I can associate William Phillips with some pretty admirable
figures: George Orwell, Arthur Koestler, and Ignazio Silone, whose
stubborn honesty was similar to William's in many ways.
His death is a loss. But several generations of writers and editors learned
their business through
Partisan Review,
and several generations of readers
learned to think more knowledgeably and profoundly through their
encounters with his magazine. Thanks to him and those he helped educate
we are not entirely bereft. For we are the beneficiaries of his legacy.
ROGER STRAUS
In
1946
I invented, pardon the expression, Farrar Straus. When I
decided to be a book publisher-I had been in the magazine business
Roger Straus is Chairman of Farrar, Straus
&
Giroux.
