Hamilton Fish V
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Hamilton Fish V (born September 5, 1951), also known as "Ham", is a U.S. publisher, social entrepreneur, environmental advocate, and film producer in
Early life and education
Fish was born in Washington, D.C., to Julia (MacKenzie) and Hamilton Fish IV, a Republican politician and member of the influential Fish family. He attended schools in New York City and Massachusetts, where he graduated from Harvard University in 1973.
While at Harvard College in 1971, Fish co-founded the National Movement for the Student Vote with Morris Abram Jr. Conceived in response to the passage of the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution granting eighteen year-olds the right to vote, the organization assisted college-age voters whose efforts to register to vote on or near their campuses were resisted by local authorities.[1]
Following graduation, Fish worked as chief fundraiser for the
Career
The Nation
Fish is perhaps best known for his work revitalizing The Nation magazine, and its sister foundation, The Nation Institute. In 1977, Fish teamed up with Victor Navasky and began the work of recruiting investors to acquire the magazine, then in receivership. Together with the help of a group of limited partners that included E. L. Doctorow, Norman Lear, Alan Sagner, and Dorothy Schiff, Fish and Navasky began a decade-long partnership as Publisher and Editor of the country's oldest political weekly. During their stewardship, The Nation experienced steady growth, modernized its publishing operation, prospered in many respects during the Ronald Reagan years, and caused a measure of mayhem worthy of an independent political journal. The magazine waged an honorable if lonely battle over the history of the Cold War, lost a landmark lawsuit[3] over the protection of copyright in the Supreme Court of the United States, and convened large scale conferences including the 1981 Writers' Congress, which examined the status of writers and their representation (and spawned the National Writers Union); as well as the Dialogo de Todas Las Americas,[4] to establish a cultural and political discourse between north and south as a counter to the interventionist doctrine of the Reagan years. In 1987, Fish transferred his interest in the magazine to Arthur Carter, a New York investor who had started the Litchfield County Times and who succeeded Fish as The Nation's publisher.
From 1995 to 2009 Fish served as president of
At the invitation of The Nation's editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, Fish worked on the design and implementation of the year-long celebration of The Nation's 150th anniversary in 2015. Fish currently manages a strategic consulting practice for clients engaged in socially active businesses, including the Baffler Magazine and Audience Engine, the new open source platform that offers audience development and fundraising tools to independent and public media organizations.
Politics
After leaving The Nation magazine in 1987, Fish entered a three-way race for the Democratic nomination for the
In 1994, his father, Hamilton Fish IV, announced his retirement from the United States Congress for health reasons. Fish again entered into a Democratic congressional primary, in the largely Republican mid-Hudson Valley district that his father had represented for 26 years. Fish won the Democratic primary, and although his father crossed party lines to endorse his son, he lost in the general election to Republican Sue Kelly.
Sexual Harassment Allegations at The New Republic
In February 2016, Fish was appointed publisher and editorial director of The New Republic after the magazine was purchased by Win McCormack.
On October 29, 2017, Fish began a leave of absence pending an independent investigation into complaints by female employees, according to a letter from McCormack sent to the magazine's staff. McCormack said he had asked Fish to "remain on a leave of absence," effective immediately after "having been made aware that a number of employees have come forward in the last few days to express concern about certain workplace interactions that have created an uncomfortable environment for them." McCormack further wrote. "As I understand them, these concerns relate specifically to interactions between Ham Fish and a number of women employees." On October 30, 2017, the
On November 3, 2017, Fish resigned from his various positions.[7][8]
In a New York Times article from November 3, 2017, Fish was cited as writing in response, "As I understand it, some employees, to my deep dismay, complained this week that my presence had led them to feel uncomfortable at The New Republic.” The article notes he added later, “It’s my sense that our office culture has been harmed, and the best way for me to help the organization move past this is by withdrawing." In the letter Fish also stated, "Women have longstanding and profound concerns with respect to their treatment in the workplace. Many men have a lot to learn in this regard. I know I do.”[9]
Film
In 1975 Fish established a partnership with
In 2011, Fish allied with the Film Foundation, the film restoration project headed by Martin Scorsese, to revive Ophuls’ long-dormant masterpiece. The Film Foundation oversaw the reconstruction and digitization of the film and presented the premiere of the finished work at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2015. Fish and Ophuls, now 87, traveled to Berlin for the premiere, and Ophuls received the Festival's prestigious Berlinale Camera award. The Film Foundation has shepherded the restored documentary to festivals and screenings around the world, including a return visit to the 2015 New York Film Festival 39 years after the film's debut at the Lincoln Center venue.
In the 1980s, Fish renewed his association with Ophüls, and together with his producing partner, John Friedman, they commenced production of the third film in the Ophüls trilogy on the evolving legacy of
With John Friedman and Eric Nadler, Fish produced Stealing the Fire,
Fish served as a producer of Food Chains, the 2014 documentary by Sanjay Rawal about farm labor that focused in particular on the gains achieved by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, the worker-based human rights organization representing tomato pickers in Florida. Food Chains helped spark a nationwide resurgence of advocacy around the workplace conditions and low wages of farm workers. Fish also developed the documentary Hot Type, for which he served as executive producer. Directed by two-time Academy Award winner Barbara Kopple, and released in 2015 in conjunction with the 150th anniversary of The Nation magazine, Hot Type goes behind the scenes at The Nation and examines the essential character of the independent journal.
Personal life
In 1989, Fish moved with his partner Sandra Harper to
In 2005, Fish and his wife Sandra, who was raised in Houston, acquired an adobe home in Marfa, Texas. Harper developed another garden at this new location and went on to create Farm Stand Marfa, a regional farmers' market serving the towns and communities situated on the Marfa plateau. Fish partnered with Ballroom Marfa, a regional center for contemporary art and culture, to create the Marfa Dialogues, a cross-disciplinary program of politics, culture, and the arts, with programs in Marfa, New York City, St. Louis and Houston.
Fish serves as president of the Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish Library
References
- ^ "Drive to Enlist Young Voters To Be at City Hall Tonight | News | The Harvard Crimson". www.thecrimson.com. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^ "Testimony of Executive Director Ira Glasser on Campaign Finance Reform Legislation Before the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^ "Harper & Row v. Nation Enterprises 471 U.S. 539 (1985)". Justia Law. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^ "President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – "Martin, Barton & Fish" Speech | Live from the Campaign Trail". livefromthetrail.com. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^ Schulberg, Jessica; Cherkis, Jason (2017-10-30). "New Republic Staff Was Warned Its Publisher Had A History Of Mistreating Women". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-01-12.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^ "New Republic publisher Hamilton Fish resigns after sexual-harassment allegation". The Globe And Mail. November 4, 2017.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
- ^ "THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE - Festival de Cannes". Festival de Cannes. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^ "Movie Review THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE". The New York Times. 2019-10-03.
- ^ "The Boston Globe Archives". pqasb.pqarchiver.com. Retrieved 2017-11-04.
- ^ The New York Times Movies NY Times
- ^ Kehr, Dave (2002-10-16). "Movie Review -- A Mercenary Prometheus Serving Iraq's Nuclear Ambitions". The New York Times.
- ^ RapidxHTML. "Alice Curtis Desmond and Hamilton Fish Library, Garrison NY". dfl.highlands.com. Retrieved 2017-11-04.