William
Maxwell Evarts
(Max)
Perkins
Born in New York City, New York County, New York, United States
Ancestors 
Brother of
Edward Newton Perkins, Charles Perkins, Mary Ann Davenport (Perkins) Thomas, Frances Bruen (Perkins) Cox and Louis Anthony Perkins
Husband of
Louise Florida Saunders
— married
31 Dec 1910 in New York City, New York, United States
[children unknown]
Died
at age 62
in Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut, United States
Profile last modified
| Created 21 Sep 2014
This page has been accessed 1,619 times.
Biography
Max Perkins is Notable.
William Maxwell Evarts Perkins was born on September 20th, 1884, in New York City. He grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey, attended St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and then graduated from Harvard College in 1907. Although an economics major in college, Perkins also studied under Charles Townsend Copeland, a famous teacher of literature who helped prepare Perkins for his career.
After working as a reporter for The New York Times, Perkins joined the venerable publishing house of Charles Scribner's Sons in 1910. That same year he married Louise Saunders, also of Plainfield, who would bear him five daughters. At the time he joined it, Scribner's was known for publishing eminently respectable authors such as John Galsworthy, Henry James, and Edith Wharton. However, much as he admired these older giants, Perkins wished to publish younger writers. Unlike most editors, he actively sought out promising new artists; he made his first big find in 1919 when he signed F. Scott Fitzgerald. This was no easy task, for no one at Scribner's except Perkins had liked The Romantic Egotist, the working title of Fitzgerald's first novel, and it was rejected. Even so, Perkins worked with Fitzgerald to revise the manuscript and then lobbied it through the house until he wore down his colleagues' resistance.
Sources
- See also:
- Wikipedia: Maxwell Perkins
- Wikidata: Item Q3302854, en:Wikipedia
- Biography, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (1978), written by A. Scott Berg. Perkins' editorial papers are in the Charles Scribner's Sons collection at Princeton University.
- Profile by Malcolm Cowley, "Unshaken Friend," New Yorker (April 1 and 8, 1944).
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Categories: New City, New York | Harvard University | Editors | Stamford, Connecticut | New York, Notables | Notables