Quoting the ending of the Editor's Letter in the February 2009 Vanity Fair
"If this is the Second Great Depression, or the Great Retrenchment, or the Great Reckoning, or whatever it's going to be called, there has to be a silver lining somewhere. Perhaps all those expensive educations and burning talents that wound up on Wall Street moving money around will be redirected to fields of endeavor with some tangible output.
In the years between 1929 and 1939, creative talent in the U.S. flowered as in no other period of the last century. The 30's a decade of devastating hardship for so many, was also the golden age of art, photography, theater, and film. In New York City alone the
Empire State Building,
the Chrysler Building, and Rockafeller Center
were built during the 10 years beginning in 1929,
The Museum of Modern Art,
the Whitney
the Frick
and the Guggenheim all opened their doors during this period. And many of our great magazines, including Fortune, Life, Newsweek, and Esquire, were started during the decade. After the collapse of Wall Street in the 1920s, the culture stopped being all about money, and the country survived and ultimately flourished. Amid the wreckage we're created, America will most certainly rise again, and it might even be a better place to live and dream." Graydon Carter
