William Maxwell

In an interview in The Paris Review, O'Connor was asked the question "How do you start a story?" and his answer was "Get black on white, used to be Maupassant's advice - that's what I always do. I don't give a hoot what the writing's like." Though in fact he did. Opposed to this belief in spontaneity and the importance of form over finicky detail was The New Yorker's insistence that a given piece of writing be as nearly perfect as humanly possible, down to the last semicolon and comma. Sitting at a table in Maxwell's office with pages of manuscript scattered before them or galleys with dozens of queries - some helpful, some exasperating - from the proofreader, the two men would work their way deeper and deeper into the material. In this book there are intimate telegrams, delighted letters of acceptance, announcements of checks sent to O'Connor's literary agent (like Robert Louis Stevenson, O'Connor suffered from the delusion that he was being overpaid). Problems of clarity arise - of what will fly in Ireland but not in America. The excitement of cutting this and restoring that, of correcting corrections. Halfway through their correspondence, in 1958, the tables are turned. Maxwell finds himself in despair over the novel he has been working on for eight years, and it is O'Connor who comes to the rescue by reading the various drafts, alternative versions, false starts, dead ends, and by his enthusiasm and concern restores Maxwell's confidence. As the professional relationship turns into a profound friendship, domestic details of their respective households begin to creep into the correspondence and are both vivid and amusing.

Dr. and Mrs. Donald's dog Bun dreams of living in his own little house instead of the Donalds' house, but when his wish comes true it is not as nice as he expected.

While the Marvell family are on a trip to visit a grandmother, their farm is taken care of by the characters from the Zodiac.

Here is a classic novel from one of our most honored writers--the author of such acclaimed works as So Long, See You Tomorrow and All the Days and Nights." The Folded Leaf is the serenely observed yet deeply moving story of two boys finding one another in the Midwest of the 1920s, when childhood lasted longer than it does today and even adults were more innocent of what life could bring.From the Trade Paperback edition.

""The novelist works with what life has given him," wrote William Maxwell. "It was no small gift that I was allowed to lead my boyhood in a small town in Illinois where the elm trees cast a mixture of light and shade over the pavements." The patterns of light, love, and a sorrow in this town, and the domestic particulars of the early 20th century, are at the heart of Maxwell's early fiction. They Came Like Swallows is the story of two boys, their father, and the unbearable loss they suffer in the winter of 1918. The Folded Leaf describes the arc of an obsessive adolescent friendship that ends in near-tragedy. Time Will Darken It paints a portrait of a small, straitlaced community where gossip can ruin even its most blameless member. The achievement of these novels is here complemented by the youthful, comic Bright Center of Heaven - out of print for nearly 70 years - and nine short stories."--Jacket.

First published in 1937, They Came LIKE Swallows was William Maxwell's second novel. It tells of an ordinary American family overtaken by the devastating epidemic of the Spanish influenza of 1918. The book begins on the day before the armistice in a small midwestern town, and the events are seen from the perspective, in turn, of eight-year-old Peter Morison--called Bunny; of his older brother, Robert; and of their father. They are witnesses to a domestic tragedy that is written with beauty and a quite magnificent tenderness.William Maxwell has been described by The Washington Post as "one of America's most distinguished and distinctive stylists." John Updike has said that "Maxwell's voice is one of the wisest in American fiction; it is, as well, one of the kindest." The Times Literary Supplement declares that "Maxwell offers us scrupulously executed, moving landscapes of America's twentieth century, and they do not fade." The Saturday Review said,"They Came LIKE Swallows is one of those rare tales in which child-hood is reflected in the simplicity and intensity of its own experience."The Modern Library has played a significant role in American cultural life for the better part of a century. The series was founded in 1917 by the publishers Boni and Liveright and eight years later acquired by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer. It provided the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. The Modern Library has been a staple of the American book trade, providing readers with afford-able hardbound editions of impor-tant works of literature and thought. For the Modern Library's seventy-fifth anniversary, Random House redesigned the series, restoringas its emblem the running torch-bearer created by Lucian Bernhard in 1925 and refurbishing jackets, bindings, and type, as well as inau-gurating a new program of selecting titles. The Modern Library continues to provide the world's best books, at the best prices.From the Hardcover edition.