VIA JOHN PODHORETZ at The Corner comes the news that Virginia Postrel, author of The Future and Its Enemies and former editor of Reason magazine, will be shortly beginning chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment. In typical Postrel fashion, she selflessly just adds the news at the end of an otherwise irreverent blog post, as if denoting that it is just one of life’s hassles, and that we shouldn’t worry about her when there are so many other things in life to be thankful for. And for many of us here at Darwin Central, Postrel herself is one of those things. Although Reason has since literally and figuratively gone to pot with her departure, when Postrel was editing it, it was by far the most intellectually simulating journal around, and influenced the thinking of many of us, conservative and libertarian alike. Not only did Postrel champion the magazine’s subheading of “free minds and free markets” during her tenure, but she has continued to write on behalf of a truly rational and nuanced approach to political and cultural issues, demonstrating the futility of trying to pigeonhole one’s self into categories of “right,” “left,” or “centre”. We wish her lots of luck and love, and look forward to more of her writing once she wins the good fight.

A thread has been started in the DC forums offering Postrel best wishes, and all are invited to contribute. Others who have offered support include Glenn Reynolds, Rand Simberg and Rod Dreher, who provides the best comments of them all.