The Writer as Illusionist

“Illuminating . . . Handling strong emotions—shame, love, grief—without fuss, Maxwell gives the bald facts of life a poignant shimmer.”— Wall Street Journal As a fiction editor at The New Yorker from 1936 to 1975, William Maxwell helped shaped several generations’ sense of the literary short story. At the same time, Maxwell himself was also an exceptional novelist, short story writer, essayist, children’s author, and memoirist. Given unique, unfettered access to Maxwell’s private papers, Alec Wi