A little known man whose influence on twentieth century literature was immense, Maxwell Perkins (born September 20th 1884, died June 17th 1947) was the literary editor for luminaries such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway.
He worked for the publishing company Charles Scribner’s Sons from 1910 and successfully sought out promising new authors, signing Fitzgerald in 1919, first publishing Hemingway (The Sun Also Rises) in 1926 and Wolfe’s ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ in 1929.
A skilful and informed editor and one deduces from the results he drew from such big and volatile personalities a man of great tact, diplomacy and vision. Perkins was able to direct and shape the literary talents of some of the cornerstones of contemporary fiction, for that we all owe Perkins our thanks.
To learn more about the relationship of Hemingway and Perkins, read the excellent Max Perkins’ Death and the Decline of Hemingway By Kelley Dupuis.
