The Sons Of Maxwell Perkins

As the sole literary editor with name recognition among students of American literature, Perkins remains permanently linked to Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wolfe in literary history. Their relationships play out in the 221 letters Matthew J. Bruccoli has assembled in this volume. The collection documents the extent of the fatherly forbearance, attention, and encouragement the legendary Scribners editor gave to his authorial sons. The correspondence portrays his ability to juggle the requirements of his three geniuses.

The talents Maxwell Perkins nurtured were known worldwide: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe among numerous others. But the man himself remained a mystery, a backstage presence who served these authors not only as editor but as critic, career manager, moneylender, psychoanalyst, confessor and friend. This outstanding biography, a winner of the National Book Award, is the first to explore the fascinating life of this editor extraordinaire in both professional and personal domains. It tells not only of Perkins' stormy marriage and secret twenty-five-year romance with Elizabeth Lemmon, but also of his intensely intimate relationships with the leading literary lights of the twentieth century.

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A selection of nearly 200 letters from the 20th century's greatest editor, Max Perkins, that also take us into the hearts and minds of the famous authors--Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Wolfe, Lardner, Rawlings and others--whom he edited.

First time publications of letters from 25-year correspondence between famed Charles Scribner's Sons editor Max Perkins and Virginia socialite Elizabeth Lemmon.

The relationship between Thomas Wolfe and his editor, Maxwell Perkins has been the subject of guesswork and anecdote for 70 years. Scholars have debated Wolfe's dependence on his editor. This volume of 251 letters should clarify the relationship and set the record straight.

Maxwell Perkins, the legendary editor who discovered and championed some of America's most canonical novelists, is less well known as a father, but in fact he was a devoted family man with five daughters. For the nearly forty decades he worked for Charles Scribner in New York, his wife and children spent summers in Windsor, Vermont, in a family compound of houses and cultivated woods established by his maternal grandfather. They called it "Paradise," which is what it was to Perkins, who'd return there for holidays and any other time he could get away long enough to make the commute by train.When he couldn't get away, he wrote letters to his girls. One daughter per day.Filled with the same humor and gentle guidance he used in working with his famous authors-Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe, among others-the letters reveal the personality of a man who was reflective, thoughtful, surprisingly whimsical, and deeply loving. Most of the letters include pen-and-ink illustrations Perkins drew himself, depicting what he was doing, or had done, or imagined his girls doing. He wrote and drew about events both unusual and mundane, from his stint camped on the Mexican border in the New Jersey National Guard to the train journeys to and from Vermont-and always about how much he missed his family.Father to Daughter isn't just a touching collection of letters from the heart of a man remembered more for his mind, but an uplifting look at the ties that bind us, no matter how far apart we may be.

"A treasure for anyone interested in how Max Perkins earned his reputation as the most gifted editor of all time by his sheer talent for friendship, encouragement, and sound judgment mixed with humor and tact. It equally reveals the grit and wit of his Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Their lively letters offer rare and engaging glimpses into the anatomy--and alchemy--of a bestseller and masterpiece."--Charles Scribner III "What a pleasure to read such gracious, literate, intimate and affectionate correspondence between an editor and an author. This, one can't help feeling, is the way it ought to be."--Michael Korda, author of Another Life "A wonderful illustration of the special relationship between author and editor that even today still lies at the heart of publishing. Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings was a strong and valiant character, a major talent with all the doubts and difficulties that go along with it. In Max Perkins she found a receptive spirit whose good counsel engendered confidence and abiding trust; over time, a deep friendship evolved. Watching the delicate, enduring organism of their partnership grow is both heartening and inspiring."--Jonathan Galassi, Farrar, Straus & Giroux This compelling collection of letters brings together for the first time the entire known correspondence--nearly 700 letters, notes, and wires--of the preeminent 20th-century American editor and his Pulitzer Prize-winning author. While the letters reveal an intimate portrait of the literary and personal friendship of Maxwell Perkins and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, they also constitute a remarkable history of the Scribner publishing house from 1930 to 1947, when Perkins died. Rawlings, awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1939 for The Yearling, was one of Scribner's stars in an era when publishing was difficult for women writers. Perkins was her champion, offering editorial opinion, a week-by-week critique of her work, and candid gossip about other writers he nurtured, most notably Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe. Perkins and Rawlings brought magic to their correspondence. Though four years passed before they used each other's first name, their attraction was immediate and mutual: they shared a sense of humor, concerns about health, discreet details about their marriages, a weakness for the bottle, and, at times, agonizing fits of despair. She sent him oranges from her citrus grove in north central Florida; he mailed her a steady supply of the stimulating nonfiction she loved to read while writing novels. Rawlings wrote not just to Perkins but for him. He responded--to both her life and her work--with wisdom, clarity, and generosity. The correspondence of these two superb letter writers presents an eloquent artifact of a rare literary partnership. Rodger L. Tarr, University Distinguished Professor at Illinois State University, is the editor of Short Stories by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (UPF, 1994), Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: A Descriptive Bibliography (Pittsburgh, 1996), and Poems by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings: Songs of a Housewife (UPF, 1997).