A William Maxwell portrait

About this book

"William Maxwell, who died in July 2000, was revered as one of the twentieth century's great American writers and a long-time 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."" "Three generations of writers are represented. 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; and Benjamin Cheever recalls Maxwell and his own father. Donna Tartt describes Maxwell's kindness to her as a first novelist; and Michael Collier admires him as a supreme literary correspondent. Other appreciations include pieces by Alice Munro and Anthony Hecht, a poem by John Updike, and a brief tribute by Paula Fox. Rounding out this collection is Maxwell himself, in the unpublished speech "The Writer as Illusionist.""--BOOK JACKET.