Perkins wanted his stars to be close friends and wrote to each of them about the others. They responded in kind: Fitzgerald on Hemingway and Wolfe, Wolfe on Fitzgerald, Hemingway on Wolfe and Fitzgerald. The novelists also wrote to each other. But contrary to Perkins’s hopes for a brotherhood among them, their letters express rivalry and suspicion rather than affinity. Perkins encouraged the writers professionally but never took sides in their sibling rivalries.
Addressing an overlooked aspect of literary study, the letters center on the acts of writing, editing, and publishing, and on the writers’ relationships with Scribners and one another. In addition to providing insight into the personalities of these literary heroes, the correspondence reveals how editing and publishing have changed since the twenties and thirties—a golden era for Scribners and for American literature. In particular, the letters correct the incomplete, oversimplified popular image of Perkins and his function as an editor—especially his relationship with Thomas Wolfe.
