For the last several years, it has been our custom to take a moment in our June issue, which marks the end of our publishing season, to offer thanks to our readers and note those whose generous support makes our work possible. It is a simple fact that The New Criterion exists only because our extended (and, we are happy to say, our growing) family of readers demonstrate by their support that they want us to exist. As Abraham Lincoln is alleged to have said in another context, for people who like this sort of thing, The New Criterion is the sort of thing they like. But their numbers are perforce select, which is another word for small. Every cultural endeavor is a compact or collaboration between maker and audience. Ultimately, the latter is the raison d’être of the former. This is especially true of an enterprise that is at once as polemical and as serious as The New Criterion. We thrive partly because of our enemies. We exist at all because our friends acknowledge the importance of what we do with their support. We take no government money, and never have. We are profoundly thankful to all who subscribe and donate to the magazine. You make our monthly publication, as well as our vibrant online presence, possible. In recent years, we have expanded our activities to include conferences, symposia, recitals, and other gatherings. We would not have been able to do this without your help, and we are particularly grateful to those who created and sustained The New Criterion in its early years. We would like to mention in particular the late, lamented John M. Olin Foundation and the Sarah Scaife and Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundations, which have been critical supporters for more than three decades. Our late friend Donald Kahn intervened to help us with major support at a parlous moment. And in addition to these benefactors we are proud to name other individuals and entities that have stepped forward to support us with major gifts this year as part of our Editors’ Circle: the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Carson-Myre Charitable Foundation, Johanna Cinader, the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Gale Foundation, Richard Gilder, Roger Hertog, Paul Isaac, the J. M. Foundation, Virginia James, Thomas D. Klingenstein, the Marcus Foundation, the Fred Maytag Family Foundation, Anthony and Christie de Nicola, David Packard, Rick Richman, Don and Donna Riley, the Thomas W. Smith Foundation, and Helen Zell. To this distinguished list we would like to add the name of that prolific philanthropist, author, artist, and composer, Anonymous, who has also manned the battlements in defense of culture and for our benefit. Thank you all for your friendship and support this past year. We are deeply grateful for your votes of confidence and look forward to many more years of fruitful collaboration.
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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 36 Number 10, on page 3
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