Robert Novak: Prince Of Twilight? By Kevin Lamb

The publication of The Bell Curve in the fall of 1994 created a major uproar in newsrooms in Washington and New York. The book was a big problem for many editors and journalists since they were unsure about—and largely unfamiliar with—the book’s empirical claims. At Newsweek, where I worked as a library assistant, the book generated a buzz that led to awkward conversations and intense discussions. Everyone had an opinion about Herrnstein and Murray’s controversial work.

Almost everyone, that is.

Leaving work one afternoon, having just picked up a copy of the book at Sidney Kramer’s on I Street earlier that day, I encountered Robert Novak in the elevator. (The Evans and Novak office was in the same building, one floor above us.) Trying to strike up a conversation with the "Prince of Darkness", who is notoriously conversation-averse, I asked what he thought about The Bell Curve. "The race book", Novak replied dismissively, in his snippy Crossfire mode.

Novak’s brush-off reply made clear that he didn’t have any opinion about it and would just as soon not have any opinion about it.

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