NC gets personal

[Carl Remick]

>From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
>
> > >Then again, onetime Fortune writer Dwight Macdonald notes in his
> > >correspondence that Henry Luce preferred hiring leftists for his 
>editorial
> > >staff because he felt that Republicans couldn't write.
>
>Wasn't it in respect to Macdonald that Trotsky made an observation to
>the effect that everyone has a right to be a damn fool at times but that
>Macdonald abused the privilege -- or something like that?

So goes the myth, carefully cultivated by Macdonald himself.  Michael 
Wreszin, editor of Macdonald's letters, states:  "Trotsky was, according to 
legend, irked by Macdonald's constant criticism and remarked that 'every man 
has a right to be stupid on occasion but comrade Macdonald abuses it.'  
Although Trotsky did refer to Macdonald as stupid, I have discovered no 
source for the quip except in secondhand mentions by such figures as James 
Burnham and Harry Roskolenko.  Macdonald seemed proud of the attack and 
quoted it often.  I think he made it up."

Carl

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