January 30, 2023
One Nation Under Victor
By nationfund
Remembering Victor S. Navasky.
I was 10 when I first heard the name Victor Navasky. My father was throwing Kennedy Justice around our living room. He had worked in the Kennedy Justice Department, and thought Navasky’s book got it wrong. Years later, another book by Victor, Naming Names, changed my life. It led me to apply to The Nation’s internship program, and in 1980, with Victor as lead professor, I embarked on my journalistic and political education.
I’d just started my internship when Victor asked me to come to his office to meet the widow of former Nation editor Carey McWilliams. Iris needed someone to help organize her late husband’s papers and Victor thought I’d be the right person. I was finishing my undergraduate thesis on the McCarthy era, and in my intern application I’d explained that I wanted to work at the magazine, which had fought so courageously for civil liberties during those scoundrel times. I considered McWilliams—and Victor—lead watchmen during (and after) those dark nights.
Years later, when Victor passed the baton, I came to realize what an idiosyncratic mentor he was. He was a true believer in independence—of journals, of countries, and of those who sought his mentorship. He trusted you to make up your own mind. There were many days I’d leave his office more confused than when I entered!
I once asked Victor how the founding editor of a political satire magazine, Monocle, ended up at The Nation. Days later, he slipped me his 1964 assignment letter asking Alger Hiss to write an “essay-review on books about and by Richard Nixon.” Victor wrote: “I know that Mr. Nixon is not much in the news these days, but we suspect that after the election there will be considerable speculation regarding his future.” I never found out if Hiss replied.
