My friend Ken Brown, who has died aged 88, was a social anthropologist, sociologist and senior lecturer at Manchester University for two decades.
He was born in Los Angeles to Rose (nee Glesby) and Samuel Brown, who ran a family clothes shop in Beverly Hills. They lived in West Hollywood, where Ken attended Hollywood high school. At 18 he went to Chicago University, graduating in history in 1957; soon after that he went to Jerusalem, where he met Josy Cohen, a librarian, who later became a social worker. They married in 1958.
The couple moved to Los Angeles, where Ken embarked on a doctorate at UCLA. His research topic was the ancient city of Salé, near Rabat, so he and his young family spent two years in Morocco in the mid-1960s.
After completing his studies Ken won a Fulbright scholarship to Manchester University, where in 1971 he became a lecturer in its social anthropology department, and then its sociology department. Manchester brought stability to the family, but Ken’s heart was in fieldwork and he undertook social anthropological research trips to Morocco, Tunisia, Jerusalem and Palestine. Although he was a senior lecturer in the sociology department, he became increasingly fed up with academic politics and in the late 80s he eagerly accepted an offer of early retirement.
In 1991 he founded Mediterraneans, a book-format review that explored the cultures of countries around the Mediterranean. It made quite a stir in its first issue, with contributions by Juan Goytisolo, Lawrence Durrell, John Berger, Jacques Berque, Yannis Ritsos, Mahmoud Darwish and Jean Mohr.
For issue three Ken moved operations to Paris. where funding was more easily secured. He was the editor and director of publication throughout its run; he sometimes had to forgo his salary in order to publish the magazine or pay one of the employees. Right up until its final issue, No 15, in 2011, the publication depended on his remarkable ability to persuade people and institutions to support his concept.
Malise Ruthven had noted in the Times Literary Supplement that “it would be a tragedy if the journal were to fold”. But fold it did, though much of it can today be found online.
Josy died in 2020. Ken is survived by their children, Daniel, Yorick and Tamar, and seven grandchildren.
