In Memoriam

The cause of liberty lost one of its freest minds and most stubborn champions with the death of Petr Beckmann on August 3. Best known as the publisher of the monthly newsletter Access to Energy, Petr championed not just free markets but science, technology, and intellectual freedom. Born in Prague in 1924, he was an indefatigable foe of environmental extremism, seeing in it the totalitarian elements that had marked the Nazis and Communists and sent many of his relatives to their deaths. He used his newsletter and Golem Press books to educate readers on the science behind the scares in lucid prose leavened with a sarcastic sense of humor. Always he told readers not to take his word for anything but to use their own reason and research to verify his claims. He was a true original, determinedly writing his 20th-anniversary newsletter from his hospital bed in early July. He will be missed.