Max Perkins

Vocation

Traits

Family

American editor who discovered prominent American writers like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway during the first half of the 20th century. After graduating from Harvard in 1907, Perkins used his connections and got a job as a reporter for the New York Times. In 1910, he went to work in the advertising department at Charles Scribner’s Sons publishing house, and in 1914, he joined their editorial staff. He was later promoted to editorial director and vice president. Perkins was a risk-taker with a keen eye. He continually looked for new authors with talent and worked with them to get such novels published as Wolfe’s "Look Homeward, Angel," 1929. He always wore a hat, which added to his reputation as an eccentric, but the hat actually served a purpose. He used it to give unexpected visitors the impression that he was on his way out, which helped keep idle conversation to a minimum. It helped his hearing as well, by thrusting his ears forward. Although he had a 25-year platonic love affair with Elizabeth Lemmon, a woman he described as the "ideal woman," he married his sweetheart, Louise Saunders, in 1910, and they had five daughters. Perkins died 6/17/1947, New Canaan, CT. Link to Wikipedia biography