William Keepers Maxwell Jr. (August 16, 1908 – July 31, 2000) was an American editor, novelist, short story writer, essayist, children's author, and memoirist. He served as a fiction editor at '' The New Yorker'' from 1936 to 1975. An editor devoted to his writers, Maxwell became a mentor and confidant to many authors.

Early life

Maxwell was born in Lincoln, Illinois on August 16, 1908. His parents were William Keepers Maxwell and Eva Blossom (née Blinn) Maxwell. During the

1918 flu epidemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

, the 10-year-old Maxwell became ill and survived, but his mother died. After his mother's death, the boy was sent to live with an aunt and uncle in

Bloomington, Illinois Bloomington is a city and the county seat of McLean County, Illinois, United States. It is adjacent to the town of Normal, and is the more populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington–Normal metropolitan area. Bloomington ...

. His father remarried, and young Maxwell joined him in Chicago. He attended Senn High School. He received his B.A. ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...

'' from the University of Illinois in 1930 where he was class salutatorian, elected to Phi Beta Kappa, poetry editor of ''

The Daily Illini ''The Daily Illini'', commonly known as the ''DI'', is a student-run newspaper that has been published for the community of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 1871. Weekday circulation during fall and spring semesters is 7,000; co ...

'', and a member of

Sigma Pi Sigma Pi () is a collegiate fraternity with 233 chapters at American universities. As of 2021, the fraternity had more than 5,000 undergraduate members and over 110,000 alumni. Sigma Pi headquarters are in Nashville, Tennessee. The fraternity ...

fraternity. Maxwell earned an A.M. at Harvard University. Maxwell taught English briefly at the University of Illinois where he served as faculty advisor to his fraternity and published an article about it in the fraternity's magazine before moving to New York.

Career

Maxwell was best known for being a fiction editor of ''The New Yorker'' magazine for forty years (1936–1975), where he worked with writers such as

Sylvia Townsend Warner Sylvia Nora Townsend Warner (6 December 1893 – 1 May 1978) was an English novelist, poet and musicologist, known for works such as ''Lolly Willowes'', '' The Corner That Held Them'', and ''Kingdoms of Elfin''. Life Sylvia Townsend Warner wa ...

, Vladimir Nabokov,

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, Mavis Gallant,

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, Maeve Brennan,

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, Eudora Welty,

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, and Isaac Bashevis Singer. Welty wrote of him as an editor: "For fiction writers, he was the headquarters." He also wrote six novels, short stories and essays, children's stories, and a memoir, ''Ancestors'' (1972). His fiction has recurring themes of childhood, family, loss, and lives changed quietly and irreparably. Much of his work is autobiographical, particularly concerning the loss of his mother when he was 10 years old and growing up in rural Midwestern United States. After the flu epidemic, young Maxwell had to move away from his house, which he referred to as the "Wunderkammer" or "Chamber of Wonders". He spoke of his loss, "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it ... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." In 1968, Maxwell was elected president of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. Maxwell was a friend and correspondent of the English writer Sylvia Townsend Warner, and was her literary executor. He edited a volume of her letters, and a further volume of his correspondence with her, ''The Element of Lavishness'', was published in 2001. Since his death in 2000, several biographical works about him have been published, including ''A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations'' (W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), ''My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell'' by

Alec Wilkinson Alec Wilkinson (born 1952) is a writer who has been on the staff of ''The New Yorker'' since 1980. According to ''The Philadelphia Inquirer '' he is among the "first rank of" contemporary American (20th and early 21st century) "literary journali ...

(Houghton-Mifflin, 2002), and ''William Maxwell: A Literary Life'' by Barbara Burkhardt (University of Illinois Press, 2005). In 2008, the Library of America published the first of two collections of works by Maxwell, ''Early Novels and Stories'', edited by Christopher Carduff. His collected edition of Maxwell's fiction, published to mark the writer's centenary, was completed by publication of the second volume, ''Later Novels and Stories'', in the fall of 2008.

Personal life

William Maxwell married Emily Gilman Noyes of Portland, Oregon. Emily Maxwell was an accomplished painter, winning the Medal of Honor in 1986 from the National Association of Women Artists. She also reviewed children's books for ''The New Yorker''. The couple were married for 55 years. Maxwell died eight days after his wife. They had two daughters, Katherine and artist and curator Emily Brooke ("Brookie") Maxwell. William Maxwell died on July 31, 2000 in New York City. The epitaph marking his memorial gravestone in Oregon reads, "The Work is the Message".

Works

Novels

* ''Bright Center of Heaven'' (1934) * ''They Came Like Swallows'' (1937) – autobiographical novella about the cruel impact of the 1918 flu epidemic, as seen through the eyes of an 8-year-old Midwestern child and his family * ''The Folded Leaf'' (1945) * ''Time Will Darken It'' (1948) * ''The Chateau'' (1961) * '' So Long, See You Tomorrow'' (1980) — An aging man remembers a boyhood friendship he had in 1920s Illinois, which falters following a murder.

Short-story collections

* ''The French Scarecrow'' (1956) * ''The Old Man at the Railroad Crossing and Other Tales'' (1966) * ''Over by the River, and Other Stories'' (1977) * ''Five Tales'' (1988) * ''Billie Dyer and Other Stories'' (1992) * ''All The Days and Nights: The Collected Stories of William Maxwell'' (1995)

Non-fiction

* ''Ancestors: A Family History'' (memoir) (1972) * ''The Outermost Dream'' (essay collection) (1989)

Children's books

* ''

The Heavenly Tenants ''The Heavenly Tenants'' is a children's fantasy novel by William Keepers Maxwell, Jr., William Maxwell. The Marvell family farm in Wisconsin is visited by the living signs of the zodiac; meanwhile, the constellations associated with them disappe ...

'' (1946) – The constellations of the zodiac come to life and visit a family farm in Wisconsin. * ''Mrs. Donald's Dog Bun and His Home Away from Home'' (1995)

Collections

* ''Early Novels and Stories: Bright Center of Heaven / They Came Like Swallows / The Folded Leaf / Time Will Darken It / Stories 1938–1956'' ( Library of America, 2008) * ''Later Novels and Stories: The Château / So Long, See You Tomorrow / Stories and Improvisations 1957 – 1999'' (Library of America, 2008)

Awards and honors

*1947 Newbery Medal runner-up for ''The Heavenly Tenants'' *1980 William Dean Howells Medal for ''So Long, See You Tomorrow'', *1982 National Book Award for ''So Long, See You Tomorrow'' National Book Foundation.
"National Book Awards – 1982"
Retrieved March 11, 2012.''So Long'' won the 1982 award for paperback Fiction.
From 1980 to 1983 in National Book Awards history there were dual hardcover and paperback awards in most categories. Most of the paperback award-winners were reprints, including this one. *1984 Brandeis Creative Arts Award *1995 PEN/Malamud Award *1995 Mark Twain Award Mark Twain Award, Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature
Retrieved March 23, 2013