A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations

by Charles Baxter (Editor), Michael Collier (Editor), Edward Hirsch (Editor)

Overview

Three generations of writers celebrate a master whose life and work continue to reverberate in contemporary letters.

William Maxwell, who died in July 2000, was revered as one of the twentieth century's great American writers and a longtime fiction editor at The New Yorker. Now writers who knew Maxwell and were inspired by him—both the man and his work—offer intimate essays, most specifically written for this volume, that "bring him back to life, right there in front of us."

Alec Wilkinson writes of Maxwell as mentor; Edward Hirsch remembers him in old age; Charles Baxter illuminates the magnificent novel So Long, See You Tomorrow; Ben Cheever recalls Maxwell and his own father; Donna Tartt vividly describes Maxwell's kindness to herself as a first novelist; and Michael Collier admires him as a supreme literary correspondent. Other appreciations include insightful pieces by Alice Munro, Anthony Hecht, a poem by John Updike, and a brief tribute from Paula Fox. Ending this splendid collection is Maxwell himself, in the unpublished speech "The Writer as Illusionist."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393057713
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	08/17/2004
Pages:	236
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Charles Baxter lives in Minneapolis and teaches at the University of Minnesota.

Michael Collier is a former director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conferences and professor emeritus of English, University of Maryland. He lives in Maryland.

Edward Hirsch has published seven books of poems, including Special Orders. He lives in New York City.

Hometown:

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Date of Birth:

May 13, 1947

Place of Birth:

Minneapolis, Minnesota

Education:

B. A., Macalester College, 1969; Ph.D., State University of New York at Buffalo, 1974

Website:

http://www.charlesbaxter.com

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	9
	Introduction	11
	Stolen (poem)	17
	Mr. Maxwell	19
	Maxwell	34
	A Story in the Dark	48
	The Dog Gets to Dover: William Maxwell as a Correspondent	53
	Chance	71
	The Breath of Life	86
	Something to Read When He Dies	107
	William Maxwell	117
	Time Will Darken It	123
	Angel Child	135
	Grace	161
	Reading War and Peace to William Maxwell	170
	Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man	187
	The Writer as Illusionist	208
	Contributors	229
	Permissions	233