REVIEW: Max Perkins, Editor of Genius
This book has been chosen as a Great Read.
Author: A. Scott Berg
Riverhead Books, 1978.
Best ebook deal: Currently Unavailable (disagree?)
| C4 Ratings.....out of | 10 |
|---|---|
| Language..... | 7 |
| Entertainment..... | 8 |
| Depth..... | 9 |
Unless you’re a huge literature dork who regularly reads biographies about editors and newspapermen, you’ve likely never heard of Maxwell Perkins. However, if you close your eyes and imagine an editor (not the porcine, cigar chomping news editor of comics, but the prosaic, behind-the-scenes type–you know who I mean) the soft-spoken but fierce person you might imagine is probably a close estimation of Max Perkins. Perkins is legendary in certain circles for being the editor and buttress for legendary–in all circles–writers such as Papa Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and F. Scott Fitzgerald to name a few. If one were to dust modern literature for fingerprints, traces of Perkins would be abundant.
A. Scott Berg presents a wonderful biography. By fastidiously poring over letters and manuscript notes which Perkins was himself fastidious in writing, he is able to weave a fascinating web of friendships and betrayals and of love sometimes unrequited or undeserved. The reader is granted a seat in Perkins’s office, or a stool in his favorite restaurant, and watches as some of the 20th century’s greatest masterpieces are pieced together from the ground up. It’s mesmerizing to observe, but impossible then not to cringe as the authors crumble into alcohol-soaked ruin.
Berg’s style is compassionate yet probing. It’s clear he immersed himself whole-heartedly in his subject matter, and it pays off in dividends. The biography often reads like it is written in memory of a dear friend, rather than as an academic or commercial pursuit. He doesn’t forgive Max his faults though, perhaps because it doesn’t seem Perkins would want or accept forgiveness.
The book is as much about the authors Perkins surrounded himself with as it is the editor himself. He treated his authors like family, especially his three discoveries who achieved the most fame. Watching Hemingway, Wolfe, and Fitzgerald squabble and reconcile like adult siblings is interesting indeed. To follow Max as his writers leave the safety of his auspices and become too large for their own egos is wrenching yet touching, and Berg presents the entire era in a sort of extended family drama. Compared with Perkins’s own inner family dramas, these dynamics present an interesting dichotomy that begs the question: what constitutes a real family? It also makes for many “just one more chapter” page turns.
If you enjoy biographies or 20th century fiction (and if you’re reading this I have to assume you do), do yourself the favor of reading this excellent book.
Other books you may enjoy: Look Homeward, Angel (Wolfe), The Teammates: A Portrait of a Friendship (Halberstam), Wonder Boys (Chabon).
