Recognized as the greatest American editor of fiction, William Maxwell Evarts Perkins (1884-1947) was legendary in his lifetime for discovering and developing brilliant authors.

Maxwell Perkins was born on September 20, 1884, in New York City; grew up in Plainfield, New Jersey; attended St. Paul's Academy in Concord, New Hampshire; and graduated from Harvard College in 1907. Although an economics major in college, Perkins had the good sense to also study under Charles Townsend Copeland, a famous teacher of literature who helped prepare Perkins for his calling.

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...