James Miller had a pretty clear idea of what happened to most copies of Daedalus, the highbrow academic journal he recently agreed to edit, once it landed in the hands of its subscribers.
"They got it, looked at it and then threw it away. Nobody was reading it."
Nothing irritates an editor more than an unread magazine, especially a magazine such as Daedalus, one of the most prestigious publications in American history.
Established in 1955 by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences - an elective society of intellectuals that dates back to 1780 - the quarterly magazine was filled with long, learned treatises by some of the smartest, most accomplished and most socially responsible thinkers in the nation.
It was filled with eloquent insights and provocative ideas. It was relentlessly earnest and devotedly well-intentioned.
And it was, according to Miller, being routinely tossed in trash cans along with banana peels and coffee grounds.
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Thus, about two years ago, Miller was hired to create a different Daedalus, which recently appeared on newsstands for $9.95. It was to be a livelier Daedalus. A spiffier Daedalus. A Daedalus that, against all odds, might actually be read - and not just by academics, but by anyone interested in the life of the mind.
"My mission was to take a journal that had been one of the key projects of the academy and renew it," said Miller from his office in Cambridge, Mass., where Daedalus is published.
The former Newsweek editor who now teaches liberal studies at the New School in New York was a frequent contributor to Lingua Franca, the defunct magazine of academic culture that is still spoken of with awe by fans for its ability to make the most esoteric topics intriguing and accessible.
Daedalus, which is underwritten by the academy, includes no advertising and has never made a profit, may now take up some of that slack and, along the way, increase its circulation of approximately 8,000.
Miller's first changes were cosmetic: He commissioned a redesign of the magazine's format by Alvin Eisenman, former chair of the design department at Yale University. Gone was the thick, booklike appearance; in its place was a thinner, more streamlined magazine. Gone were the copious notes at the end of each article; in were brief footnotes.
Next, he decided to add fiction, poetry and letters to the editor to the lineup for the first time in the magazine's history. Previously, the contents were exclusively non-fiction essays.
Also, he added a section in the back that enables academy members to discuss current events in a succinct, punchy format.
More subtly, Miller said, he suggested to contributors that they broaden the appeal of their pieces.
"I tell them to write as if they're at a dinner party with colleagues from around the university. You're in chemistry, say, and they're in English. So you have to speak without the jargon of your field."
His task - to make an academic journal readable - is not as Sisyphean as it might seem, Miller said.
"America is, compared to other cultures, demonstrably not as interested in intellectual life, in the sense that the Japanese, the French or the British are. Generally, people in this country aim too low. As a result, if you can stick it out long enough to find your audience, there are actually people wandering around the country who don't want a 20-second sound bite.
"This (Daedalus) is for people whose minds want to make the stretch."
by Julia Keller
Knight Ridder-Tribune Columnist
Julia Keller writes for the Chicago Tribune. Readers may e-mail at jkeller@tribune.com.
