Karl Hess and the Doppelgänger

Ever since he nailed his 21 theses to the outhouse door, a strange and persistent figure calling himself Karl Hess has roamed the journalistic byways. His pronouncements have appeared in such organs of intellectual and moral acuity as The New York Times Magazine and Playboy. He can be seen on the more fashionable talk shows. He is uniformed in dungarees, work-shirt, and boots—when in doubt, embrace the proletariat—and is given to the titillating vocabulary of the men’s bar and the smoker.

There was once another Karl Hess, and I knew him intimately for years—ambitious, cutting a throat from time to time, but only when absolutely necessary; on balance open and generous, worshipping his heroes, a happy political buccaneer, an extremist in his inthusiasms whether they pointed to the left or the right. (Only Arthur Schlesinger Jr. can be an extremist of the center.) He was a writer of talent and persuasiveness, careful of his facts no matter where his opinions might lead.

RT

About the Author

Ralph de Toledano

Featured Tags

Ever since he nailed his 21 theses to the outhouse door, a strange and persistent figure calling himself Karl Hess has roamed the journalistic byways. His pronouncements have appeared in such organs of intellectual and moral acuity as The New York Times Magazine and Playboy. He can be seen on the more fashionable talk shows. He is uniformed in dungarees, work-shirt, and boots—when in doubt, embrace the proletariat—and is given to the titillating vocabulary of the men’s bar and the smoker.

There was once another Karl Hess, and I knew him intimately for years—ambitious, cutting a throat from time to time, but only when absolutely necessary; on balance open and generous, worshipping his heroes, a happy political buccaneer, an extremist in his inthusiasms whether they pointed to the left or the right. (Only Arthur Schlesinger Jr. can be an extremist of the center.) He was a writer of talent and persuasiveness, careful of his facts no matter where his opinions might lead.