Max Perkins: Editor of Genius

Back at the office, Max managed to dictate the rest of his letters just before the tennis champion Helen Wills Moody strode in.

if Perkins did not have the time of his life, he would wheelbarrow him all the way back to New York.

“Hemingway loves to write for those of us who will never come face to face with danger.”

Maxwell Perkins gave all his authors the feeling that he cared as much for their work as they did themselves.

Then he and Scribner discussed a limited edition of William Butler Yeats’s works.

archives of Charles Scribner’s Sons, which are housed in the Princeton University Library.

The latest story concerned Hemingway’s knocking a man down for calling him a big fat slob. “You can call me a slob,” Hemingway had said, “but you can’t call me a big fat slob.” Then he struck him down. The natives of Bimini set the incident to music, and if they were sure Hemingway was not within earshot, they would sing in a calypso beat, “The big

Max never asked Fitzgerald (or any writer) to sign a permanent contract

“Always stop while you are going good. Then when you resume you have the impetus of feeling that what you last did was good. Don’t wait until you are baffled and stumped.”