Readers,
And just like that, we’re 40. It’s weird how the time flies. In the blink of an eye, the Herald has gone from newspaper to culture magazine, pivoting and pivoting until we found a place to call home all the while taking bits and pieces from the places we’ve been. That’s why, in this special Anniversary Issue, you’ll find our full range, from archival reportage and op-eds to poetry and listicles: Smile Jiang’s archival reportage on the Herald’s driving ethos, Samuel Rosenberg’s take on Epstein and the hidden coalition, Dersu Seater on his mug kleptomania, and our very own Arts Desk on their forty favorite people. We’ve also got Kenny Phan and Louise Puchalla writing about Yale’s complicity in global imperialism, Tom Dawber decrying Ivy League shame in food service, and Eva Kottou explaining why she’s cancelled two years of Valentine’s dates.
The point, as you might have guessed, is that the Herald is—has always been—a place for everyone. Forty years ago, the Herald was created as a free alternative to the then-subscription-based Yale Daily News. We remain such an alternative—not necessarily for our readers, but for our writers. Any student can, at any time, write for the Herald, and write without the overhang of upholding an institutional image. To quote one of our predecessors, Arthur Delot-Vilain, “It’s a hard balance (and sometimes it’s just a straight-up contradiction) between being funny and irreverent and also genuine and passionate. It is an extremely human contradiction, and that’s where the Herald thrives: as an extremely human publication.”
That’s what we hope to offer to our community of writers, editors, designers, and readers. We know that, in the grand scheme of things, the Herald doesn’t really matter. And yet, here are thirteen writers who have cared enough about their thoughts to put them on the page and share them with the world. Thirteen writers, on average, every week for forty years. Hundreds of thousands of words written mostly by people who did not become professional writers, who published in the Herald purely because they were young and had something to say. Why do we keep doing it? For the love of the game, frankly.
In spirit of looking back on the last forty years, we leave you with the words of another former editor-in-chief: “We produce a print issue every other week because we love doing it, not to burnish our resumes or to ascend some social hierarchy but to keep something beautiful alive. It is sometimes silly and sometimes serious and it is always completely student-directed. To edit and illustrate and lovingly lay out someone else’s work on the printed page is a momentary reprieve from the prevailing institutional culture of selfishness.”
Keep on reading.
Most daringly,
Will and Oscar
