The Sons of Maxwell Perkins
Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald,
Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe,
and Their Editor
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli
with Judith S. Baughman
In April 1938 F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote to his editor Maxwell Perkins, “What a time
you’ve had with your sons, Max—Ernest gone to Spain, me gone to Hollywood, Tom
Wolfe reverting to an artistic hill-billy.” As the sole literary editor with name recognition
among students of American literature, Perkins remains permanently linked to Fitzgerald,
Hemingway, and Wolfe in literary history and literary myth. Their relationships, which
were largely epistolary, play out in the 221 letters Matthew J. Bruccoli has assembled in
this volume. The collection documents the extent of the fatherly forbearance, attention,
and encouragement the legendary Scribners editor gave to his authorial sons. The correspondence portrays his ability to juggle the requirements of his three geniuses.
Perkins wanted his stars to be close friends and wrote to each of them about the others. They responded in kind: Fitzgerald on Hemingway and Wolfe, Wolfe on Fitzgerald,
Hemingway on Wolfe and Fitzgerald. The novelists also wrote to each other. But contrary
to Perkins’s hopes for a brotherhood among them, many of their letters express rivalry
and suspicion rather than affinity. Perkins encouraged the writers professionally but
never took sides in their sibling rivalries.
Addressing an overlooked aspect of literary study, the letters center on the acts of
writing, editing, and publishing, and on the writers’ relationships with the house of
Scribner and one another. In addition to providing insight into the personalities of these
literary heroes, the correspondence reveals how editing and publishing have changed
since the Twenties and Thirties—a golden era for Scribners and for American literature.
In particular, the letters correct the incomplete, oversimplified image of Perkins and his
function as an editor—especially his relationship with Thomas Wolfe.
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MATTHEW J. BRUCCOLI is the leading
authority on F. Scott Fitzgerald. He has written or edited nearly seventy volumes about or
by Fi t z g e r a l d, Ernest Hemingway, and
Thomas Wolfe. Bruccoli lives in Columbia,
South Carolina.
JUDITH S. BAUGHMAN is the author of
F. Scott Fitzgerald in the series Literary
Masters and a coeditor of books about
Fitzgerald. She also lives in Columbia.
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