A William Maxwell Portrait Memories and Appreciations

by Baxter, Charles; Collier, Michael; Hirsch, Edward

• ISBN13: 9780393057713
• ISBN10: 0393057712
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-08-17
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company

Summary

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 Ending this splendid collection is Maxwell himself, in the unpublished speech "The Writer as Illusionist."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

Charles Baxter's most recent novels are Saul and Patsy and The Feast of Love, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. He lives in Minneapolis and teaches at the University of Minnesota Michael Collier's most recent book of poems, The Ledge, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. He directs the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference and teaches at the University of Maryland Edward Hirsch, a MacArthur Fellow, has published six books of poems, most recently Lay Back the Darkness. He is president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and lives in New York City

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	9	(2)
Introduction	11	(6)
John Updike
Stolen (poem)	17	(2)
Donna Tartt
Mr. Maxwell	19	(15)
Alice Munro
Maxwell	34	(14)
Paula Fox
A Story in the Dark	48	(5)
Michael Collier
The Dog Gets to Dover: William Maxwell as a Correspondent	53	(18)
Alec Wilkinson
Chance	71	(15)
Charles Baxter
The Breath of Life	86	(21)
Benjamin Cheever
Something to Read When He Dies	107	(10)
Shirley Hazzard
William Maxwell	117	(6)
Anthony Hecht
Time Will Darken It	123	(12)
Ellen Bryant Voigt
Angel Child	135	(26)
Richard Bausch
Grace	161	(9)
Annabel Davis-Goff
Reading War and Peace to William Maxwell	170	(17)
Edward Hirsch
Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man	187	(21)
William Maxwell
The Writer as Illusionist	208	(21)
Contributors	229	(4)
Permissions	233