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My Letter of Resignation Was an Entire Issue of a National Magazine
I knew I was going to quit and leave my sexist boss behind. I just needed to do it in the biggest way I could.
The conference above shimmering Lake Zurich was an intoxicating affair. Attended mostly by European literary lights and public intellectuals, plus a smattering of Americans, it was convened to explore new ideas and ways to tell stories in a world that had suddenly cracked open. The Berlin Wall had come down a few years before, and ideas once thought sacrosanct and immovable were falling away.
I’d given myself a year to start a new magazine in Berlin to capture the zeitgeist, enjoying the city’s cultural foment while facing the expected challenges raising the necessary cash. I was in Zurich to network.
Over the course of the weekend, I met an American magazine publisher seemingly intrigued by my idea. He planned to expand his publication’s reach by publishing a European version, he said. He convinced me that together we could achieve our respective editorial vision. I’d come back to the United States and work with him for a year and then launch a Eurocentric version focused on culture and politics.