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Pruning the Torrent: Maxwell Perkins and the Art of Manuscript Revision
In the spring of 1929, legendary Scribner's editor Maxwell Perkins sat behind his cluttered desk in Manhattan, staring at an enormous crate of paper. Young novelist Thomas Wolfe had delivered the raw manuscript of his debut novel, Look Homeward, Angel. The text was a chaotic torrent of autobiographical prose, overflowing with poetic brilliance and sprawling redundancies. Never before had Perkins encountered an author of such volcanic energy who possessed so little structural discipline. Perkins recognized that a masterpiece lay buried beneath the verbiage, awaiting a disciplined editorial hand.
Rarely does an editor face the delicate task of cutting hundreds of pages without extinguishing an author's unique voice. Perkins invited Wolfe to nightly working sessions in his office, debating every scene with patience and firm insight. Seldom had Wolfe accepted criticism