Hail and Farewell to Evan Thomas, a superb writer and editor who is leaving Newsweek. He was a classic newsweekly writer of the old breed. He could take reporting from a half dozen staffers and cobble together a beautiful piece of prose (our Nancy Gibbs–now a top editor and columnist at Time–would also do this in gorgeous fashion in the days when there were correspondents and writers, and rarely the twain did meet). He was also a great Washington Bureau Chief who taught me a lot.
Evan has become a very fine writer of non-fiction books. His biography of Robert Kennedy is being made into a movie. He’s working on a biography of Dwight Eisenhower now. I suspect that Evan, who has been edging off the reservation for years, would have been leaving Newsweek sooner or later for full-time bookwriting. His departure now is understandable, although regrettable–we need all the first-class journalists we can find. But I do wish him well and look forward to reading his Eisenhower book.