Light On Dark Water

Dawn Eden Profiled in the New York Times (!)

It's focused on her connection to two other people: the writer of the profile, and the little-known '60s pop musician Curt Boettcher, who holds a deep fascination for both of them: "She Told Herself She Couldn't Die Because She Had to Write His Story." It's extremely interesting, and a little surprising for the NYT in that it's a sympathetic treatment of a committed Catholic. One wants to point out to the writer the name and nature of the bridge she's looking for (see the last paragraph), but I suppose she'll have to find it for herself.

I've known for a long time of Dawn's love for the recording which seems to be the main exhibit in the case for Curt Boettcher's importance as an artist. It's called Begin, and was the work of a group called The Millenium, which seems to have been pretty much a studio entity. It was a very expensive production and great things were expected of it when it was released in 1968. But it was a commercial flop, and the group never made another album. I don't recall ever hearing of it at the time, and I was pretty familiar with what was going on in pop music then. The last time I looked for it online it was out of print and the only copies available were quite expensive. But it's been reissued now. My copy arrived yesterday, and I'm about to listen to it. I will report later.

If I'm not mistaken Daniel Nichols has also mentioned his affection for the album. 

Maclin Horton
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8 responses to “Dawn Eden Profiled in the New York Times (!)”

  1. Louise

    Gosh! That’s pretty cool.
    What ultimately allayed her depression was not Boettcher, but God. In October 1999, she had a “born-again experience,” and if her name sounds familiar, it’s because she has been very public about it: she has blogged about conservative and religious matters on her site, The Dawn Patrol, since 2002, and was fired from a copy-editing job at The New York Post for inserting pro-life terminology into an article on in vitro fertilization. (She now says she regrets this.)
    That was interesting. I wonder why she regrets it?
    As for the rest – it’s amazing what God will use to get our attention. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Marianne

    I think what she regrets is not sticking strictly to her job as a copy editor.
    Here’s some detail in an interview she had with the New York Observer in 2005 about what she’d done and her reaction to being fired:

    Ms. Eden was given a story by Post reporter Susan Edelman to copy-edit. The story was about women with terminal cancer who want to have babies: Through in-vitro fertilization, multiple embryos are fertilized and implanted one at a time until as many as 12 survive.
    According to Ms. Eden, she was repelled by what she interpreted as a “cavalier” attitude about the embryos in Ms. Edelman’s story: “Treating them as a manufactured commodity that don’t have significance as human life,” Ms. Eden said. (Ms. Edelman declined to comment when reached by The Observer.)
    “I got choked up,” Ms. Eden said. “How are people going to ever understand the complex issues involved here, if the story they’re reading reduces it to ‘Oh, isn’t this nice? We can just make lots of embryos and not worry about whether they live or die.’”
    Ms. Eden read a line in the draft of the story: “Experts have ethical qualms about this ‘Russian roulette’ path to parenthood.” She saw her opportunity: She added a phrase: ” … which, when in-vitro fertilization is involved, routinely results in the destruction of embryos.” And where Ms. Edelman had written that one woman had three embryos implanted “and two took,” Ms. Eden changed that to read: “One died. Two took.”
    Ms. Eden said she thought she was performing a service for the reader, since she believed that the Post had been “notoriously oblivious” to the nuances involving embryonic life.
    “In retrospect, my first loyalty should have been to my employer,” she said.
    The article, with Ms. Eden’s alterations, came out on Jan. 16. Post editors were furious. Mr. Gross told her to apologize to the writer, Ms. Edelman, which Ms. Eden promptly did, calling her own actions “unwarranted and wrong.”

    Reply
  3. Mac

    Yes, I remember that episode. Apparently it’s forbidden for a copy editor to make anything other than technical corrections to a text. One can imagine the presumably “pro-choice” writer’s rage on finding her copy changed in a politically incorrect way. It got Dawn fired.

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  4. Louise

    Wow! Bet that wouldn’t have happened in reverse though. I don’t think I could ever be a copy-editor!

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  5. Mac

    I believe you would be at risk of apoplexy if you were copy-editing at a leftish publication. 🙂

    Reply
  6. Daniel Nichols

    Yes, I found the Millenium album in a cutout bin, circa 1969 and loved it. I don’t know if I still own the vinyl or not but found some of the stuff on Youtube, and it wears well, most of it.

    Reply
  7. Paul

    It’s like translation: your job is conveying somebody else’s meaning. There are times when it’s a struggle.

    Reply
  8. Louise

    It’s like translation: your job is conveying somebody else’s meaning. There are times when it’s a struggle.
    I’ve often wondered about that, Paul.
    Yes, Maclin, I would be certain to have an apoplectic fit!

    Reply

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