In my inbox this morning from a (lefty) journalist friend:

Beautiful piece of writing on the passing of [Norman Macrae], a former deputy editor of the Economist. Full of things to love about conservatism.
I’m always astonished by the ability of Economist obits to make you miss someone you never knew existed.

She’s quite right. A great portrait of Macrae’s 40 years as The Economist’s idiosyncratic free-market prophet.

UPDATE: From a reader:

I always thought WFB did the same thing. I remember tearing up and thinking to myself “We’re sure going to miss him…” about many a character I only knew about through his obituary. ( This was back in the olden days before NRO online.) I always admired those obits as much as anything else Mr. Buckley wrote!