Former Harper’s editor Theodore Ross has written an essay at Dad Wagon about being laid off at the literary magazine–calling the current state of publishing “a depression.”
Here’s an excerpt: “I will say that Harper’s problems are hardly original among its publishing peers: the challenges it faces are structural, others stem from poor luck and an inability to plan; most, however, are clearly self-inflicted … I’m 37 years old and out of work in the middle of what, for publishing at least, is a depression. I may never again hold a job of similar prestige and seriousness of purpose. Hopefully, the book I’m working on (tentatively titled Am I a Jew, it is expected in 2012 from Hudson Street Press) will be a success by whatever lights my publisher needs to allow me to write another.”
What do you think? Last week, hundreds of Facebook users joined the new Save Harper’s Magazine cause on Facebook. (Via The Awl)