Just got this news over Twitter: Ed is dead.
From Scott:
We met a few times in real life, but I heard from him often in emails. It was either to let me know of a story that he thought would interest me, or to tell me how wrong I was about something, or to correct my typos. You see, “Ed” stood for Editor, and he was the editor of Blawg Review.
Ed had a few rules: First, no one ever showed a picture of his face. He was anonymous, and it was his desire to stay that way. To my knowledge, no one has been so unkind as to ever post a pic of Ed. Second, everyone called him Ed. He spoke of his life, but he was still always Ed. That’s how he wanted it, and so it was respected.
This morning, Ed’s son twitted the terribly sad news:
Newcomers to the blawgosphere might not know of Ed., as Blawg Review wore out as too many lawyers became self-promoters rather than members of the blawgosphere. It reflected a golden age of blawging, where we weren’t in it for the money or phony prestige, but for the good we could do and the camaraderie of being part of something more important than ourselves. And Ed was at the helm.
He was a great friend. I will miss him. Rest in peace, Ed.
Ed, the anonymous editor ofBlawg Review, has died, according to tweets sent out over the@BlawgReview Twitter feed.
Tweets posted this morning said:
Dear Blawg Review Community,
I am the son of Ed, writing today with a heavy heart to inform you of his passing after a courageous battle with esophageal cancer. I believe it would have been his wish for Ed to remain anonymous – and so I will respect those wishes.
Started in April 2005, Blawg Review was a “carnival of law bloggers” in which each week’s host would round-up his or her picks for the best posts of the week. It was always a must read for those who followed legal blogging.
I had the good fortune to meet Ed on several occasions. Here’s a photo I took of him adorned in full identity-protection mode.
He was a pleasure to know — smart and witty and kind. He will be missed.
He will be. We already were missing him; unfortunately, Blawg Review had been on ice for a while now. I never took Ed’s picture, I think, but he took this one, which I prize, of Randazza and me.
In April 2005 I wrote the second-ever Blawg Review, and I subsequently did a bunch more that you see me recycle here from time to time. And this is the last Blawg Review ever, I guess, though so far only a few people have posted (this just in from Charon QC ); I may add more posts if they get written.
Who knows if they will, however — as Scott says, and many of us have said as well, that era of blogging is over. Not sure there’s any SEO value in posts such as this one, about a guy who built a “brand” and not himself, just for the hell of it.
Thanks, Ed. We do miss you, and what you were all about. Condolences, of course, to your family and other loved ones. Other, I mean, besides us.
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