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American & Canadian Literature, Literary Biography
Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg — book cover

Max Perkins: Editor of Genius

by A. Scott Berg
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Overview

The National Book Award winner from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, A. Scott Berg. 

The talents he nurtured as an editor were known worldwide: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and numerous others. But Maxwell Perkins remained a mystery, a backstage presence who served these authors not only as book editor extraordinaire but also as critic, career manager, money-lender, psychoanalyst, father-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 the professional and personal domains. It tells not only of Perkin’s stormy marriage, endearing eccentricities, and secret twenty-five-year romance with Elizabeth Lemmon, but also of his intensely intimate relationships with leading literary lights of the twentieth century. It is, in the words of Newsweek, "an admirable biography of a wholly admirable man."

Synopsis

The National Book Award winner from the #1 New York Times bestselling author is now in Berkley trade for the first time—and celebrating its 30th anniversary.

The talents he nurtured became worldwide literary legends—among them, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. But Maxwell Perkins remained a mystery, a backstage presence who served these authors not only as editor extraordinaire but also as critic, psychoanalyst, father-confessor, and devoted friend. But who really was Maxwell Perkins? “Now the mystery has been solved, in A. Scott Berg's exhaustive, penetrating, and wholly satisfying biography” (Miami Herald).

New York Times Book Review

A highly readable work of literary history.

About the Author, A. Scott Berg

A. Scott Berg is the author of four bestselling biographies: Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, which won the National Book Award; Goldwyn, for which he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship; the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lindbergh; and the #1 New York Times bestseller Kate Remembered.

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Editorials

Chicago Tribune

A work that does honor to the subject.

Atlantic Monthly

A. Scott Berg has...(perhaps just in the nick of time) rescued Perkins from permanent obscurity.

New York Times Book Review

A highly readable work of literary history.

Library Journal

Berg nailed the National Book Award for this portrait of the house of Scribner's legendary editor. Perkins's close, personal relationships with Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe are well documented by literary scholars, but he also was a force behind other noted authors, including Pulitzer Prize winner Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, convincing her to write The Yearling, and James Jones, whose From Here to Eternity was the last book Perkins edited. Anyone with a healthy interest in these writers generally are curious about Perkins as well, since he looms large in their legends, and will want to read this. Academic collections certainly should own a copy, but public libraries also should invest. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Book Details

Published
September 1, 2008
Publisher
Penguin Group (USA)
Pages
512
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780425223376

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