Summer editing

I strolled across the University of Washington campus yesterday afternoon.  The temperature was in the low 80s, working its way up to 85.  The campus seemed relatively deserted for a Thursday -- it was either a slow time of day during summer quarter, or perhaps the university was still between quarters.

The heat, the quiet, the beauty of campus brought back student memories, memories that strengthened as I walked past Gowen Hall, standing across a walkway from the main library.  In the 1970s, the building was still called Condon Hall.  It then housed the law school.

I spent most of my days and many of my nights in and around Condon Hall the summer following my second year of law school.  Looking back, that may have been -- all things considered -- the happiest, most consistently enjoyable summer of my adult life.  

I was summer editor of the law review.  That sounds impressive, but it primarily meant that I was the only one of the incoming editors, now "3Ls" (third year law students), who hadn't bothered to seek out a summer internship downtown, and who was also attracted to the job of writing and editing.

My editorial duties consisted of editing the "case notes" prepared by hopeful applicants for law review membership from the class behind us (incoming 2Ls).  Invitation to membership on the review was based on both the quality of their case notes and their first year grades.  But the best case notes were also published in the review, once whipped into publishable form.  

Whipping them into shape -- that's where I came in.  Occasionally over the protests of their authors, with their inflated pride of authorship..

Interspersed with my editorial work, I was also researching and drafting a far lengthier student "comment" of my own for publication.  Work on my own comment probably took as much time as my formal editorial duties.  Between the two, I spent almost every day in my law review office, and in the law library for which I had a key for night time access, as well.

It sounds exhausting, but I was doing work that I enjoyed doing, and in which I felt confident in my ability to do well.  That's one recipe for daily happiness.

But back to the hot days and lightly populated campus.  Each morning I'd arrive early on the sunny campus.  The law review offices were in a "daylight basement" area with windows opening onto a walkway at ground level.  Across the walkway was the university's main library.  I'd enter my office, check the mail, open my window to let the office cool down in the morning air, and finally walk a hundred yards or so to the student union building.  

A cup of coffee and two maple bars.  I was a skinny kid who as yet had developed no concern with weight or cholesterol levels.  

Fortified and caffeinated, I'd return to the law school, enter my office through the open window, stepping lightly onto my desk and then jumping to the floor.  For some reason, this daily breach of professional dignity stands in my mind as a symbol of all of the pleasures of that summer.  Something that my law review classmates, clad in coats and ties in stuffy downtown offices, had neither the opportunity nor the desire to imitate.

All those hot summer days in my office, and all my long hours of research and writing, alone, bent over a desk in the darkened library at night, paid off.  We put out an excellent publication that year, including articles by faculty members from the UW and from other schools, comments (including my own, thank you) researched and written by us 3L editors, and well written and edited case notes from our incoming 2L members.

I have a bound copy of all our issues.  I sometimes take it out of my book case and admire it.  I sacrificed a summer when I could have been out hiking and camping, but there were many years in the future for those summer activities.

But only one summer in a lifetime as a summer editor.
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PHOTOS:
Top -- Condon Hall (now renamed Gowen Hall)
Botttom -- The magical windows into my office!