Читать книгу Assignment Russia - Marvin Kalb - Страница 7

So many helped me, friends and family alike. To avoid unnecessarily lengthening the book, I shall mention only a few.

I start with the warm and wonderful people at the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, where the inspiration for this memoir was sparked. Jon and Kem Sawyer, who run the center, created the environment for serious research and fun exchanges. They got me started, and I am deeply grateful for their help, encouragement, and friendship.

In the spring of 2019, I moved to the Brookings Institution, which had been my unofficial home for years. There, among outstanding scholars of public policy, I continued my research and writing and eventually finished this memoir. I am especially indebted to John Allen, president of the Brookings Institution, for his kindness and understanding, as well as for setting an example for courageous, sensitive leadership during a time of national crisis that is widely appreciated. To all of my Brookings colleagues, thank you for your invaluable help, offered often without my even asking: to William Finan, Yelba Quinn, Elliott Beard, Cecilia González, Robin Ceppos, and their other very able colleagues at the Brookings Institution Press, including Janet Walker, who copyedited the manuscript; to Holly Cohen, who helped with the research; to Cy Behroozi, Sara Chilton, and Laura Mooney of the Brookings Library; and to Emilie Kimball and Andrew Sanders—bless you for always being there when I had a question or needed assistance.

Among my friends, who helped tirelessly with editing and lengthy consultations, Garrett Mitchell, who writes the elegant Mitchell Report, and Walter Reich, a professor of medicine and expert on the Holocaust who teaches at The George Washington University (GWU), stand at the top. They were there from the beginning and stayed loyally to the end. For whatever it’s worth, they have my eternal gratitude.

Also, with dignity and understanding, a constant source of encouragement was my friend, Michael Freedman, president of the National Press Club, executive producer of The Kalb Report, and a media professor at GWU. He knows his contribution to this memoir, from title to content, and the depth of my gratitude.

Always my family: First, to Mady, my wife for the past sixty-two years and a key character in this memoir, who has always been my Number One adviser; our daughters, Deborah, an author and editor, and Judith, a professor of Russian language and literature at the University of South Carolina; our sons-in-law, scientist David Levitt and professor Alex Ogden; our grandchildren, Aaron and Eloise, phenomenal fountains of pride, love, and amazement; and my brother, Bernard, a model and inspiration to me and everyone else lucky enough to bask in his love, example, and friendship—to all of you, my thanks and love.

I have now at age 90 reached a time in my life when I appreciate not just the big things, but the small things too, like a smile, a gesture, or even, in pre-pandemic times, a handshake or a note. So, in that spirit, I extend my hand in friendship to every reader, hoping that together we can build a better world where kindness, compassion, and understanding become the recognizable ingredients of a normal day in American politics.