A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780393057713)

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 Ending this splendid collection is Maxwell himself, in the unpublished speech "The Writer as Illusionist."

Author: Charles Baxter
ISBN-10: 0393057712
ISBN-13: 9780393057713
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English
Published: 08/01/2004
Pages: 234
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.00d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 06/14/2004 pg. 52
Library Journal 11/01/2004 pg. 86