Commentary: True genius who nurtured Wolfe, Hemingway, Fitzgerald

By Jon Caroulis

I discovered my hero when I was 21. He is Max Perkins, one of America's greatest literary editors and the subject of the new film Genius.

I was an aspiring writer of nonfiction, and possibly fiction, when I read a wonderful biography of Perkins by A. Scott Berg, which is the basis for the movie.

Perkins was at Charles Scribner's Sons and was editor to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and many other notable writers. What made him heroic to me, as I read Berg's book, was how determined he was to get Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wolfe published when his own firm - and many others - had rejected them.

The devotion Perkins showed this trio (and others) was what these young, temperamental, and insecure artists needed as much as his editorial guidance.

Perkins was probably closest to Wolfe, and Genius focuses primarily on their relationship.

Wolfe's first manuscript was an unwieldy, rambling book that was far too long. But Perkins (Colin Firth in Genius) saw something in the prose that captivated him, and together they went over the work line by line to get it into publishable form as Look Homeward, Angel.

A few years later, Wolfe (played by Jude Law) wrote a sequel that was gargantuan. Again, Perkins went over the manuscript with Wolfe for six and then seven days a week, with the result being Of Time and the River.

The two became close; Wolfe was the son Perkins never had (he had five daughters), and Perkins became a surrogate father to Wolfe, whose father had died while he was away at graduate school. They had a heartbreaking rift, with Wolfe leaving to show he could write without Perkins' help.

For someone who wanted to write, Perkins seemed like a patron saint to me. Not only did he fight for his writers, but he also gave so much of himself as a mentor, friend, and adviser.

As I watched Genius, I have to admit I got a little choked up seeing Perkins on the screen. The film is uneven, though still affecting, but what I missed was the rest of Perkins' career. Hemingway appears in only one scene, Fitzgerald three.

After a brilliant start, Fitzgerald was almost forgotten by the 1930s, and was emotionally battered by alcohol and dealing with his wife's mental illness. What Perkins did for him was more important than any literary advice: He would not let Fitzgerald give up on himself, no matter how low he sank.

Hemingway had a nasty side and turned on his wives, lovers, friends (including Fitzgerald), everybody, it seemed - but not Perkins. When he learned of Perkins' death in 1947, Hemingway wrote to Charles Scribner III (another of the few Hemingway didn't toss aside), "One of my best and most loyal friends and wisest counselors in life as well as in writing is dead."

It was Perkins who suggested to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings that she write a story about a boy in the Florida scrub country where she lived. Rawlings struggled with it, and Perkins sent her letters full of encouragement and suggestions. The book went on to become the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Yearling.

Marcia Davenport, who wrote best-selling and critically acclaimed novels under Perkins' guidance, dedicated her 1947 book East Side, West Side to him. It reads, "In memory of Maxwell Evarts Perkins with gratitude for this and all his work; with love and sorrow."

After his breakup with Perkins, Wolfe traveled the country and completed a manuscript, but he died of tuberculosis of the brain before it was published.

Despite their falling out, Wolfe named Perkins as literary executor of his estate, and Perkins helped another editor with what became two books, The Web and the Rock and You Can't Go Home Again, published by Harper & Bros. (This is not in the film.)

Genius ends with Perkins reading a note Wolfe wrote from his hospital bed discussing their relationship.

A film can never fully encompass a book - or a life - which is why there is little of Perkins' other writers in Genius. I accept this, but if the filmmakers had asked me for suggestions, I would have told them to show how Perkins was so important to other authors. In the film, Law reads to Firth the dedication he wrote for Of Time and the River. But the film omits the phrase "unshaken friend," which I would have included. Likewise, in Wolfe's last letter to Perkins, it leaves out an important phrase: "If I get on my feet, I'll come back."

And because everyone should have a Max Perkins in their life, I would have titled the film Hero.

Jon Caroulis is a writer in Jenkintown. jon.caroulis@gmail.com