David Brittan Photo: Alonso Nichols

THE EDITORIAL WE

Missing You Already

I’ve never spent much time around swans, so I can’t be sure I’ve got the melody right. But after nine years at Tufts, it’s time for me to do my best impression of a swan song. Editing Tufts Magazine is the most rewarding job I’ve ever had. I would be crazy to give it up unless I were moving on to something about which I was extraordinarily passionate—which happens to be the case. So this last Editorial We column is my farewell to you, dear reader, and my opportunity to introduce your new editor.

As I contemplate life after Tufts, my mind is focused on all the things I will miss. Working on a magazine, for starters. I love magazines and always have. As a kid, I would rush home from school to paw through the latest Life, Saturday Review, Popular Science, New Yorker, or Punch (sorry, Britishness showing). Magazines are dependable and yet full of surprises. They have big, beautiful pictures. Vibrant design. Interesting typography. And because you are reading this, I trust you agree that magazines are a smart way for universities to keep the connection going between alumni and their alma mater.

I’ll miss the talented publications team that pours heart and soul into each issue of Tufts Magazine, as well as the many scholars, journalists, artists, and photographers who have dazzled me with their brilliance.

I’ll miss higher ed as well. It’s always inspiring to work in an environment where young people are discovering their passions and learning what they can contribute to society. At Tufts in particular, one feels part of an enterprise that consciously marshals people’s talents to do good in the world. That’s a rare perk indeed.

Tufts has produced the best magazine readers an editor could hope for: generous in submitting articles and story ideas, receptive to the many changes we’ve imposed on the magazine, good-humored in your corrections, helpful in your feedback, and above all, willing to sit down and read what we have to say. And so, dear reader, as Dorothy said to the Scarecrow, I think I’ll miss you most of all.

With luck, we’ll meet again in my next incarnation. In a risky and possibly foolhardy move, I’m off to do what I’ve dreamed of doing for decades: write funny books. My first novel, about misfits in eighteenth-century New England, is under way, and you’re invited to follow my exploits on the companion blog, His Effing Nibs.

I leave Tufts Magazine in the care of a highly accomplished journalist, and heck of a nice guy, John Wolfson (john.wolfson@tufts.edu). You’ve seen John’s writing if you’ve read The New Yorker, The Atlantic, or Wired lately. He is also the former editor of Boston magazine. I look forward to the entirely new experience of finding Tufts Magazine in my mailbox and not knowing what’s inside.

There, that’s my swan song. Thank you for everything. Peace and light.

—DAVID BRITTAN
EDITOR