Give restricted editors access to unpublished nodes Using Drupal 6.22.

I want to have editors create nodes (in a unpublished state) and be able to edit them. If they navigate away from the node their editing, they can't find it unless they have the full URL to it.

Is there a way to give them access without granting privileges to the admin pages and administering nodes?

I think creating a view of unpublished content and having it only show for editors is one possibility.
I think you'll find the Workbench module (Drupal 7 only) will fit your needs nicely.  There's a good screencast explaining the module on the project page.