Antiques

May gods confer on you your due rewards,
If deities regard the good, if justice
And mind aware of right count anywhere.
What happy centuries gave birth to you?
What splendid parents brought you into being?
While rivers run into the sea and shadows
Still sweep the mountain slopes and stars still pasture
Upon the sky, your name and praise and honor
Shall last.
Virgil, Aeneid, Book I

It seems inconceivable to think of Allison in the past tense; her death is profoundly shocking, one of those viscerally unacceptable deaths that mark our lives, however distantly or familiarly we knew her. It is, perhaps, all the more shocking because Allison lived so fully, so productively, until the end, never going "gentle into that good night." She bore the last ordeal with characteristic gallantry and never a word of complaint. She died as she lived, with grace and dignity.

Allison Ledes was the editor's editor. She learned early that "In the beginning" is--not was--"the word." That appreciation for the mot juste, as well as for things visual, carried her to the heights of magazine editing. She had a mental toughness, a moral compass, and the talent to write and edit as she thought, with clarity and purpose. She was incredibly bright, dauntingly articulate, high in energy, intellectually confident, and fiercely independent. Assured but never arrogant, friendly but not fawning, modest but not without pride, she invariably put into practice the old-fashioned virtues of steadiness, dependability, consideration, and courtesy. She never lost her faith in history and the study of material culture--in the use of the past to instruct the present and improve the future.

Gentle in manner, penetrating in insights, with the highest standards for excellence, Allison also possessed a delicious wit and sense of humor. She had an astonishingly wide range of friends. She brought many gifts to the practice of her craft: a generous portion of plain good sense; a respect for English; and a talent for writing clearly, cogently, and concisely.

Allison Eckardt Ledes had a personality that inspired friendship and a character that justified confidence. Memory is her monument.

COPYRIGHT 2008 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning