Who

Vanden Heuvel is the editor and publisher of liberal bastion The Nation.

Backstory

Vanden Heuvel has spent her entire career at The Nation. After interning at the magazine in 1980 while an undergrad at Princeton, she became an assistant editor and then editor-at-large in 1989, moving up to the post of acting editor in 1994 after longtime chief Victor Navasky took a leave of absence to teach at Harvard. In 1995, vanden Heuvel was part of the contingent of investors who purchased the struggling weekly from its owner at the time, Arthur Carter. (The others were Navasky, Alan Sagner, Paul Newman, and E.L. Doctorow.) She took over as editor-in-chief the same year when Navasky became editorial director and publisher. Since then vanden Heuvel has also edited a number of political books published by The Nation's imprint and become a regular on the pundit circuit.

Of note

The Nation has a long and storied past: Founded by abolitionists in the 1865 at the start of Reconstruction, it's been the preeminent voice of the Left for three generations, and its pages have featured the writing of such notables as Martin Luther King, Jr., Albert Einstein, H. L. Mencken, Gore Vidal, Hunter S. Thompson, James Baldwin, and Jean-Paul Sartre. Yet the magazine has also been a big money-loser, rarely turning a profit and relying on an extended network of friends to stay in business, although finances have improved a bit in recent years. Ironically, the Bush administration and the war in Iraq have been a boon; the rightward lurch in American politics has made The Nation's voice of dissent increasingly compelling to many new readers, and subscription rates have risen accordingly. Vanden Heuvel's reporters have landed some big scoops in recent years as well: It was The Nation's D.C. reporter, David Corn, who broke the Valerie Plame scandal in the summer of 2003.

For the record

The Nation's regular writers and columnists include Calvin Trillin, Naomi Klein, Eric Alterman, and Katha Pollitt. Christopher Hitchens wrote a column for years until quitting over his opposition to the magazine's anti-war stance. Editorial board members include Eric Foner, Toni Morrison, Tony Kushner, and Barbara Ehrenreich.

Family ties

Her father is William vanden Heuvel, who was Permanent Representative to the United Nations during the Carter administration; her grandfather, Jules Stein, founded the entertainment conglomerate MCA.

Personal

Vanden Heuvel is married to NYU history professor Stephen Cohen, who is 22 years her senior. (With her husband, she co-authored Voices of Glasnost: Interviews with Gorbachev's Reformers in 1990.) They have a daughter, Nika, and live on Riverside Drive.