Being Sarah Pettit
Maybe one reader in a thousand knew Sarah Pettit's name, but they knew her mind and sensibility, which would have pleased her just as much. (Well, more or less just as much.) From the spring of 1999 until her death last week, at 36 - which is unacceptable - Sarah was the editor who directed Newsweek's coverage of arts and entertainment. When you saw, say, a Q&A with Vin Diesel on the same spread as a profile of the New York Philharmonic's conductor Lorin Maazel - that was Sarah to the life. She cabbed it to art openings or sat home in front of the TV in the same state of opinionated excitement.
She was delighted when she got a new book on Dante, delighted when a new Mariah Carey record came out and delighted to tell her snobby music critics how wrong they were about Mariah Carey. Ever since last spring, when she began treatment for lymphoma, the writers who worked for her have taken turns keeping her chair warm, certain that she'd beat this thing and come back to us. She was a tough lady, right? Or did such an earnest imitation of one that you had to believe it. And she always relished a righteous battle. (Excerpt from Newsweek)
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