Synopses & Reviews
The National Book Award winner from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, A. Scott Berg.
The talents he nurtured as an editor were known worldwide: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and numerous others. But Maxwell Perkins remained a mystery, a backstage presence who served these authors not only as book editor extraordinaire but also as critic, career manager, money-lender, psychoanalyst, father-confessor, and friend.
This outstanding biography, a winner of the National Book Award, is the first to explore the fascinating life of this editor extraordinairein both the professional and personal domains. It tells not only of Perkins stormy marriage, endearing eccentricities, and secret twenty-five-year romance with Elizabeth Lemmon, but also of his intensely intimate relationships with leading literary lights of the twentieth century. It is, in the words of Newsweek, "an admirable biography of a wholly admirable man."
Review
"A book about Maxwell Perkins? Of course! Why didn’t someone think of it before?…Berg has done very well…It’s a fascinating and illuminating story." Chicago Sun-Times
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"Although Perkins would have been embarrassed by the attention, Berg’s tribute would have touched him." Time
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"Berg’s whole narrative is first-rate—filled with humor and feeling. Max would have published it in a minute." Newsweek
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"Talented, intelligent, and marvelously researched…A work that does honor to the subject." Chicago Tribune
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"[An] exhaustive, penetrating, and wholly satisfying biography…Scrupulous, thoughtful, touching, memorable, and eminently rewarding." Jonathan Yardley, The Miami Herald
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"Berg has told this story unobtrusively and with great feeling, and he has (perhaps just in the nick of time) rescued Perkins from permanent obscurity." The Atlantic
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"A highly readable work of literary history." The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
Now the Major Motion Picture Genius, Starring Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman and Jude Law.
The National Book Award winner from Pulitzer-Prize winning author A. Scott Berg.
The talents he nurtured were known worldwide: F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and numerous others. But Maxwell Perkins remained a mystery, a backstage presence who served these authors not only as editor but also as critic, career manager, moneylender, psychoanalyst, father-confessor, and friend.
This outstanding biography, a winner of the National Book Award, is the first to explore the fascinating life of this genius editor extraordinare--in both the professional and personal domains. It tells not only of Perkin's stormy marriage, endearing eccentricities, and secret twenty-five-year romance with Elizabeth Lemmon, but also of his intensely intimate relationships with the leading literary lights of the twentieth century. It is, in the words of Newsweek, "an admirable biography of a wholly admirable man."
About the Author
A. Scott Berg graduated from Princeton University in 1971. He is the author of the bestselling books Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, which won the National Book Award and Goldwyn: A Biography, for which he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in Los Angeles.