R.I.P. Ed (editor of Blawg Review)
I was saddened to learn of the recent passing of Ed, the anonymous editor of Blawg Review. I had the pleasure of meeting Ed in 2007, in San Jose, at a gathering of Bay Area law bloggers organized by Professor Eric Goldman. The following year, I hosted Blawg Review #183.
Ed did much to foster the community of law bloggers that existed in the mid-2000s. Many of those who eulogized him in recent days have also mourned the passing of the golden age of law blogging. Has that golden age really passed? I believe that, in some ways, it has.
The final installment of Blawg Review -- Blawg Review #325 -- is a multi-part tribute to Ed with posts from Simple Justice, Defending People, The Trial Warrior, My Law License, Popehat, New York Personal Injury Law Blog, Declarations and Exclusions, a public defender, Likelihood of Confusion, Charon QC, and Infamy or Praise.
At Defending People, in what must have been a huge amount of work, Mark Bennett catalogs all the past Blawg Reviews "in case the list ever disappears from BlawgReview.com." Mark discovered that a great many of the blogs that hosted Blawg Review in the past -- as far back as 2005 -- are now defunct or dormant. But many are still alive and kicking.
In memory of Ed, here is the only photo of him known to have survived the 2007 meetup:
This is just how I fondly remember him -- enigmatic, dressed all in black. He ran Blawg Review as a labor of love. To this day I believe he remains anonymous.