Rediscover: Max Perkins

After a stint as a reporter at the New York Times, Maxwell Perkins (1884-1947) became a book editor with Charles Scribner's Sons in 1910, and though he respected the publisher's venerable older authors like Henry James and Edith Wharton, Perkins sought out new, younger voices. In 1919, he discovered F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose first novel, This Side of Paradise (1920), was the beginning of a new literary era dominated by Perkins's authors. He went on to discover, edit and publish Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and James Jones, among other major figures in 20th-century literature.

A. Scott Berg, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Lindbergh (1998), a biography of the famous aviator, wrote about Maxwell Perkins for his senior thesis at Princeton University. Upon graduation, Berg expanded his work into Max Perkins: Editor of Genius (1978), winner of the National Book Award and inspiration for an upcoming biopic, Genius, in theaters June 10. The film stars Colin Firth as Max Perkins; Laura Linney as his wife, Louise; Guy Pearce as F. Scott Fitzgerald; Dominic West as Ernest Hemingway; Jude Law as Thomas Wolfe; and Nicole Kidman as Wolfe's romantic partner, costume designer Aline Bernstein. Genius is the first film by theater director Michael Grandage. To mark its release, NAL is republishing a tie-in edition of Berg's biography on June 7 ($18, 9780399584831). --Tobias Mutter

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