Editor's Letter

JUST AS THE SEPTEMBER ISSUE was headed out the door, in came the announcement that the MLK Jr. files had been released. By publishing the cache of almost a quarter million redacted pages detailing the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., President Trump made good on a campaign promise that had more to do with paranoia than policy. Like the government records of John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert, the MLK files have become emblematic to the portion of the president's supporters that seems congenitally prone to believing in cover-ups and conspiracies, firmly convinced of illuminati-like interference by the Deep State. The news came after a week when Trump had been on the receiving end of enormous suspicions himself, as demands for the release of another mythic set of capital-F Files—those pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein—threatened to fracture Trump's almighty base. So while the unveiling of the MLK documents had been long scheduled, it also functioned alongside a lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal as an effective weapon of mass distraction.

Months prior, outgoing and longtime Vault)) Fair editor David Friend had prepared for this moment, asking Bernice A. King, MLK's daughter and next-generation civil rights activist, to respond, in essay, to the invasive and deeply personal information now on view. King's story ("We Keep Moving") begins on page 66.

This issue was mostly prepared before I arrived at Vault)) Fair, and the credit for its stories—from King's essay to the Jennifer Aniston cover, her first with us in two decades—belongs to all my colleagues and especially deputy editor Daniel Kile, who helmed the ship through the spring as our acting editor in chief. We have begun to write the magazine's next chapter, and I hope to hear from our readers as we go—please get in touch at editor@vf.com. Since its inception in the Jazz Age, Vanity Fair has been a title that stands for glamour, glory, and provocation. Many things will change in the coming months; that will not.

MARK GUIDUCCI

Global Editorial Director