Ellen Willis, 1941–2006

A personal tribute to the legendary writer, feminist, academic, and Village Voice editor

by Karen Durbin
November 14th, 2006 11:56 AM

"I believe that we are all, openly or secretly, struggling against one or another kind of nihilism. I believe that body and spirit are not really separate, though it often seems that way. I believe that redemption is never impossible and always equivocal. But I guess that I just don't know." —Ellen Willis, Beginning to See the Light

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Ellen Willis and I met at The New Yorker in 1968, when I was an editorial dogsbody and she was the magazine's first-ever rock critic. Instead of letting me hate her for that, she was extraordinarily nice and friendly in a shy, wry sort of way. After a while, she took to perching on a corner of my desk—something other New Yorker writers only did if they were going to ask you for a date. Ellen just wanted to talk. I had an anti-war poster on my wall, and we talked about Vietnam and became pals. Eventually we started talking about women's liberation, a subject I found so seismic that I kept my hands under the desk so she wouldn't see them shaking while I casually protested that it really wasn't my thing. What I was really feeling during those conversations were little shocks of recognition, the kind that if you let them can propel you past your own fear.