Sublime

For the rest of the morning Max dictated letters.

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

In this way, as an editor he did more than reflect the standards of his age; he consciously influenced and changed them by the new talents he published.

“Everything Max does is directed toward the whole effect of the book.... He believes in your characters; they become completely real to him.... He can take a mess of chaos, give you the scaffold, and then you build a house on it....