Perkins, Maxwell E. 1884-1947

PERKINS, MAXWELL E. 1884-1947

Editor and publisher

Editor of Geniuses

Maxwell Perkins was the most renowned editor to practice his craft at an American publishing house. It has been remarked that his career was based on a quest for an American Tolstoy, whose War and Peace he regarded as the supreme work of fiction. Perkins's reputation is permanently linked with those of three geniuses he published at Scribners: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. The 1920s were a golden decade for American literature; brilliant writers and great publishers reinforced each other. Boni & Liveright had a stimulating list of titles; but no house matched the distinction of Charles Scribner's Sons, which entered the 1920s as a conservative firm and became the imprint of exciting young fiction writers.

Allegiance to Talent

Though raised in New Jersey, Maxwell Perkins came from New England stock and was Harvard-educated. His Yankee reserve and integrity characterized his relationships with his authors, who depended on him for more than editorial guidance. After working as a reporter on The New York Times, Perkins became advertising manager at Charles Scribner's Sons in 1910 and moved to the editorial department in 1914. Because he had the right background and family connections, he was able to persuade his older colleagues to undertake departures from their traditional publishing policies. Although he was unable to convince the firm to take a chance on the novel Fitzgerald wrote in the army during 1918, Perkins compelled acceptance of the rewritten novel, This Side of Paradise, by telling Charles Scribner: "My feeling is that a publisher's first allegiance is to talent.… If we're going to turn down the likes of Fitzgerald, I will lose all interest in publishing books." Published in 1920, Fitzgerald's novel was a surprise success and initiated Perkins's reputation as a discoverer of literary talent.

Fitzgerald and Hemingway

The relationship between Fitzgerald and Perkins grew increasingly close, and Fitz-gerald brought two of his friends, Ring W. Lardner and Ernest Hemingway, into the Perkins stable. Hemingway had published a volume of short stories in America in 1925, and Perkins contracted for his novel without reading it in 1926. When the typescript of The Sun Also Rises arrived, Perkins again had trouble convincing his colleagues that a book that featured promiscuity and drunkenness should bear the Scribners imprint. And it was in this case necessary for Perkins to persuade an extremely touchy author to make certain revisions and deletions for the sake of propriety.

Editorial Technique

As with Fitzgerald, Perkins's working relationship with Hemingway became a warm and lasting friendship, an extraordinary circumstance in view of Hemingway's suspicious nature and history of broken friendships. There were frequent eruptions by Hemingway, but Perkins always placated him, reassuring the writer of the editor's loyalty. Perkins's rule was that "The book belongs to the author." It was the editor's responsibility to help the writer but not to take control of the work. His commitment to his authors' talent was as crucial to Perkins's achievements as his editorial skills. The writers trusted him; therefore, they trusted his advice. He did not rewrite the books; he offered suggestions for improvement. Perkins's particular strength was in suggesting structural revisions, as he did for The Great Gatsby.

Wolfe

The editorial task for which Perkins became celebrated was his work with Thomas Wolfe on Look Homewardy Angel, published in 1929. In a process unusual for Perkins, he was required to become virtually a collaborator as he worked closely with Wolfe night after night to cut and restructure the long, unpublishable drafts. Fitzgerald and Hemingway could have succeeded without Perkins, but Look Homeward, Angel would not have been published without Perkins's editorial interposition. The friendship between Wolfe and Perkins was intense, but in the year after the publication of Of Time and the River (1935), the pathologically suspicious writer broke with Perkins and Scribners in reaction to the charges that he could not write publishable books without Perkins. When Wolfe died in 1938, he had not published another novel.

Role Model

In addition to the famed geniuses, Perkins's roster of writers included Morley Callaghan, Erskine Caldwell, Taylor Caldwell, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, S. S. Van Dine, Arthur Train, Will James, and James Boyd. He was working with James Jones on From Here to Eternity when he died. Because of his connection with some of the greatest figures in American literature and the distorted accounts of his editorial miracles, Maxwell Perkins has inspired aspiring editors and dignified a profession in which the bookkeepers outvote the book-makers.

Sources:

A. Scott Berg, Maxwell Perkins: Editor of Genius (New York: Dutton, 1978);

Editor to Author: The Letters of Maxwell E. Perkins (New York: Scribners, 1950).