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Article: Blue guitar.(NOTEBOOK)(reflections on magazine editing)(Editorial)
- Article from:
- Harper's Magazine
- Article date:
- May 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 Harper's Magazine Foundation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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They said, "You have a blue guitar,
You do not play things as they are."
The man replied, "Things as they are
Are changed upon the blue guitar."
--Wallace Stevens
With this issue of Harper's Magazine I come to the end of my second term as its editor, and when I look at the bound volumes on the shelves of the magazine's library, I hear the voices of writers and readers with whom I've been acquainted for a very long time, still loud in their passion to get at the truth. I know of no task more difficult, but then neither can I think of one that makes for better conversation or brings with it as many changes on the poet's blue ...