Many, many months ago ONE's present editorial staff began to make plans for this anniversary issue, for this anniversary year. An idea, proposed early in our discussions, was to reprint throughout the year, the "best" from ONE's long nine years. The idea was, after much discussion, adopted as having merit. Then came the search for the "Best of ONE." Almost everyone had a suggestion, a favorite article, a favorite story, a piece of poetry, the "gay menagerie," Brother Grundy, etc. One by one these were pulled out of the files and reread. Some of us, deliberately and laboriously, examined page after page, every issue on our shelves. And then came the shock. One by one each suggestion was thrown aside. Our own selections, reread, did not seem so outstanding. Someone was sure to say: "Well, yes, this is pretty good. It's quite well written. It's amusing, it's interesting, even, but if this were to be submitted to ONE today, I would reject it without a second thought. It's old hat, it's been said, it's not really very clever any more, it's ingenuous, it's naive. What does it matter?" And so on. Oddly enough there was almost always unanimous agreement, excellent as the selection once may have been, there was no place for it in the ONE magazine of today. A great idea went out the window. There are not in this issue, and there will not be in 1962, any "reprints." But I hasten to add, we are not ashamed of these old issues. Indeed, as we look them over, there are many issues as a whole, many articles, many phrases, many lines, which make our hearts swell with pride. Time after time the question comes to mind, "How could we have been that good? Boy, this must surely have been an accident!" Even so, this is not good enough for 1962! NO, if it is not that it "is not good enough," it is just that it "no longer needs saying." Our problems, our issues are different.
And so, at almost the last moment, a project which we had nurtured for the better part of a year, collapsed in a lifeless heap on the worn floor before us. Could we not yet salvage something of this great plan? Perhaps !
What might Martin Block, what might Dale Jennings, Geraldine Jackson, and others have to say today? To hell with what they said ten years ago! Let's hear from them today! And so, that is what we give you our tenth anniversary issue. some Martin Block,-ONE's first editor, some Dale Jennings ONE's second editor; an issue embellished by Eve Elloree, ONE's earliest and most regular past contributors.
We, your editors, hope that perhaps we can continue, throughout this year, this project to bring you new and original contributions by the best, the most famous writers ONE has presented these past nine years. And perhaps, we will eventually reprint something of our "best." It is not that there have not been many things which we have been proud and happy to print, for there have been many, but again, I say, this is 1962, not 1952, and there is a lifetime and a world before us.
It is with this in mind that your present editorial staff begins to plan ONE for February, 1962, and for, 1963, 1965...!
Marcel Martin Associate Editor
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