April 02, 2004

Michael Kelly. A collection of his last writings is out: Things Worth Fighting For: Collected Writings

Kelly, of course, was the Atlantic Monthly war correspondent killed during the taking of Baghdad.

Worth a read -- Ron Rosenbaum, "We Miss Mike Kelly". Quotable: "I’m still bitter about Michael Kelly’s death. This is something I realized when I went to an event in his memory on March 17, nearly a year after he was killed in a Humvee while covering the war in Iraq. I didn’t expect to get as upset as did. I hardly knew Mike Kelly; we shared an editor, Robert Vare, and our paths had crossed while writing for him. In addition, I’d written a couple of pieces for Mike (and Vare) when Mike was editing The Atlantic. But I think I know from those few encounters why he meant so much to the people who really did know him well. There are some people who strike you immediately by a kind of natural goodness that goes beyond good nature. Like obscenity in the Supreme Court opinion, natural goodness is something that’s hard to define, but you know it when you see it .. ". More Ron Rosenbaum.

UPDATE: USNews has an interview with Kelly's widow.

And here is Atlantic Monthly editor Robert Vare on Kelly.

Also. The Atlantic Monthly has this: "It was Koppel who brought Mike's personal effects, including those notebooks, back to his family. He writes [in the introduction to Things Worth Fighting For]:

"The sacrifices that both Michael and I had imposed on our wives and children had been the subject of one long, late-night conversation in the desert. Many marriages in our profession don't survive the separations and the accumulated pressures of lengthy and dangerous assignments. We marveled at the enormous generosity and toughness of our wives and how fortunate we were in the freedom they had given us. There's never a truly equitable payback, but as we talked that night, I don't think it occurred to either of us that Michael might be denied even the opportunity to try."
It is impossible for someone with young kids not to be moved by those like Kelly -- good men with a purpose -- who died leaving young kids. Posted by Greg Ransom | TrackBack