It’s the birthday of the current editor of The New Yorker magazine, David Remnick, born in Hackensack, New Jersey (1958). He’s only the fifth editor in the 84-year history of the magazine.

He had no professional editorial experience before taking the job a decade ago. He was a journalist, and one of the best around. After graduating from Princeton with a comparative literature degree, he went to work for The Washington Post as a cub reporter, covering football games, police activity, and celebrity gossip. Then, a post as Moscow foreign correspondent opened up, and he — in his late 20s and newly married — jumped at the chance. [more . . . ]