Worth noting …

Author Stephen Byler sent me an email yesterday in which he said he had been in touch with Joel Whitney about Whitney's Salon piece "The Paris Review, the Cold War, and the CIA." Stephen and I had talked about it, an I had remarked that it was maybe the best thing the CIA had ever done. Whitney text messahed Ste[hen the following comment:

"My brother said the same: namely, that starting lit mags is better than assassinations. It would be nice if they were one or the other. The fact is they started lit mags to avoid blowback while ramping up their assassinations and coups. And it got writers/lovers of freedom confused about whether they were allowed to oppose the assassinations without being called red or communist or pink or Stalinist.They were afraid that calling out the CIA might hurt their writing careers.The fear persists."

I fear so.

Whitney's essay is listed in Best American Essays of 2013  as among the Notable Essays of 2012. (So is "Time Crystals,: an essay of mine that was published in Boulevard.)