Naturally,
Max Perkins was a complex man. But any editor will see him as basically: Max
the editor.
Maybe the
most important words he left for young, old, and middle editors were these:
“Don’t ever get to feeling important about yourself, because an editor at most
releases energy. He creates nothing.”
“Releasing
energy” is no small deal. Any writer know the benefit of that external boost of
energy to one’s writing. For Max, it was smart energy. It was an energy based on extraordinary care. It was
said of him often that he cared as much for the work as the author did.
Max, who
lived and breathed a love for words and their upending and enduring value when
used well, had many of his own words for editors and for living
- Generalizations are of no use. Focus on the specific—and draw out the action.
- · Revere the writer, for he or she is “under the compulsion of genius.”
- · (On the importance of content) Pack a sentence with dimension and intensity; make the paragraph carry a heavy load.
- · (On choosing a career) If a man [or woman] will only stick to the thing he or she loves most, he will do it right and end right.
- · (On parenting) The only rule I knew was not ever to let hostility grow between you and your child whatever happened.
- · (On the editor’s place) The editor at best serves as handmaiden to authors.
- · (On the writer) The book belongs to the author. A writer’s best work comes entirely from himself or herself.
- · (On politics—in the 1940s) My opinion is that we’ll never know a really peaceful time again. What of it. What is life but taking a licking.
Not a
pessimist, but a realist; Max demanded the utmost reach of his writers—and the
same utmost from the writers’ “handmaidens.”
