It was big news in the world of journalism when Hilton Kramer left The New York Times in 1981 to become the first editor of The New Criterion. Few could understand why the chief art critic of the newspaper of record should choose to leave his post to edit a fledgling magazine of art and literature, and fewer still why he wished to ally himself with the conservative foundations that provided the seed money to launch the enterprise. How could Hilton Kramer, an eloquent voice for abstract expressionism and high modernism, enter into an alliance with conservative business leaders whose range of interests (it was said) did not extend much beyond free enterprise and supply-side economics? Hilton’s critics had a point: It was an unusual alliance. They doubted it would last for very long. As things turned out, it was Hilton Kramer more than anyone else who made it work.

I had just joined the staff of the John M. Olin Foundation in 1981 when the original grant was made to fund The New Criterionfor the first three years of operations. (The Scaife and Smith Richardson Foundations were the other early donors.) Shortly thereafter Hilton and his small staff set up shop in the offices of the Olin Foundation in midtown Manhattan while they searched for a permanent base of operations. For the next two or three years, the staffs of these two operations mingled on a daily basis as they went about managing their far