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Darold Leigh Henson's Review of William Maxwell: A Literary Life The following review of Dr. Barbara Burkhardt's biography of William Maxwell was invited by the Journal of Illinois History and appears in its spring, 2006, issue: Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 72-74. Mr. Maxwell (1908-2000) was born and raised in Lincoln, Illinois, and he used his hometown as subject matter in many short stories and novels and one book-length family history.
William Maxwell: A Literary
Life The frieze of the Illinois State Library, opened in 1990 and facing the state Capitol, inscribes the names of thirty-five distinguished Illinois authors, including that of William Maxwell (1908-2000). Maxwell, a native of Lincoln, Illinois, led a dual literary life. For forty years (1936--1976), he was a well-respected fiction editor of The New Yorker magazine. His career as an author of autobiographical short stories and novels was even longer, beginning with his first novel, Bright Center of Heaven (1934), and ending with Billie Dyer and Other Stories (1992). Commonly acclaimed as his masterpiece, So Long, See You Tomorrow (1980) won Maxwell the prestigious William Dean Howells Medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Yet, despite these distinctions, no book-length study of his life and work had appeared until Barbara Burkhardt published William Maxwell: A Literary Life in 2005. She is a tenured faculty member in the English Department of the University of Illinois at Springfield. Readers of the Journal of Illinois History will be especially interested in Professor Burkhardt's book because much of William Maxwell's material is based on his childhood memories of Lincoln, Illinois, the first town named for Abraham Lincoln, in 1853, before he became famous. In many ways, Lincoln, Illinois, has always been representative of Midwestern small towns. A thorough researcher and skillful writer, Burkhardt effectively accommodates readers ranging from academic specialists in American literature to educated laypersons. Also, readers both familiar and unfamiliar with Maxwell will find Burkhardt's book engaging and informative. In the Introduction, Burkhardt precisely states her thesis: ". . . [H]e [Maxwell] experimented with narrative technique, bringing new form to his subjects as his view of them evolved over time. Early on [Virginia] Woolf and company stirred him to create a distinctive form of the tradition-breaking Modernism they practiced: He brought tough subjectivity, in-depth psychological probing, and unremitting intensity to the substance of his life and Midwestern homeland. Then, in small stages over many decades, he pushed past his own practice to arrive at a distinctive form of American Postmodernism that questions and foregrounds how we come to understand the past, challenges how we can over know what 'really' happened . . ." (page 8). Burkardt explains that Maxwell continually adapted his material: "Each of his works brings new form, new possibilities to his signature subjects--childhood and family life, the Midwest, the agony and acceptance of loss--while navigating the delicate balance between human will and fragility, between the concurrent tragedy and privilege of living" (page 8). The chapters of her book are chronologically sequenced to reflect Maxwell's artistic development: "Childhood: A Lifetime of Material, 1908-33"; ". . . Bright Center of Heaven, 1933-34"; ". . . They Came Like Swallows, 1934-38"; ". . . The Folded Leaf, 1938-45"; ". . . Time Will Darken It, 1945-48"; ". . . The New Yorker and The Chateau, 1948--61"; ". . . Ancestors, 1961--71"; "Maxwell's New York, 1974--76"; So Long, See You Tomorrow, 1972--80"; and "Late Short Works, 1980-92." Each chapter benefits from the prodigious research that Burkhardt began near the time she first interviewed Maxwell in 1991, and these interviews continued "once or twice a year" until six months before he died in 2000 (page 4). Her scholarship also led her to investigate key sources of intellectual and artistic influence on Maxwell: Virginia Woolf, Elinor Wylie, W.B. Yeats, Walter de la Mare, Zona Gale, Louise Bogan, and the Freudian psychiatrist Theodor Reik. Burkhardt's research included access to correspondence between Maxwell and his father and stepmother, and this information helps Burkhardt discuss the ways in which Maxwell uses them (and others) in his fiction and memoir. Burkhardt notes that despite Maxwell's focus on domestic life, his material extends "beyond the home and into the community" (page 105) of the early twentieth century. In her chapter on Time Will Darken It, Burkhardt discusses how Maxwell's portrayal of Martha King and Nora Potter shows females struggling with the limitations of gender roles imposed by society. In several passages Burkhardt discusses the relationship between members of the white upper middle class and their black servants. Yet, her biography does not attempt a full discussion of social classes in Maxwell's canon. This reviewer's reading of Maxwell's Lincoln-based works finds that various main characters represent both town and country dwellers, and they span the entire range of the middle class: upper, center, and lower. More than a year after its publication, William Maxwell has received mostly high praise. Chris Lehmann's review in Washingtonpost.com quotes and agrees with Burkhardt's claim that "perhaps no body of American writing so fully captures the development of one person from childhood through advanced years" (pp. 9-10). The privileged relationship between Burkhardt and her subject, however, leads Morris Dickstein to qualify his compliment. He writes in The New York Times that her book is "a valiant attempt to chart the relations between the stories Maxwell told and the stories he lived. It has all the benefits and some of the drawbacks of an insider's project." Dickstein implies that Burkhardt is unwilling to identify any weaknesses in Maxwell's art. Curiously, no negative criticism of Maxwell appears in Dickstein's review. In a passage quoted from So Long, See You Tomorrow, Burkhardt acknowledges Maxwell's self-awareness that discovering and expressing the truth of human nature and life through creative writing are difficult. Humility and wisdom are endearing qualities in Maxwell that Burkhardt often cites. Just as Maxwell empathizes with those who live by "the true feeling of the heart" (Ancestors, p. 252), Burkhardt celebrates Maxwell's love of life and literature, and this biography should inspire people to read Maxwell again and again. Darold Leigh Henson,
Professor Emeritus of English Links Information about the Journal of Illinois History: Quarterly of the Illinois State Historical Library (published by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency), including how to subscribe: http://www.state.il.us/HPA/journal.htm Site dedicated entirely to William Maxwell: A Literary Life, including passages from other reviews: http://www.aliterarylife.com/ Summary of Darold Leigh Henson, "Social Consciousness in William Maxwell's Writings Based on Lincoln, Illinois," which appeared in the Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society (winter, 2005-06: 254-286). University of Illinois Press Web page focusing on William Maxwell: A Literary Life, including online ordering form: http://www.press.uillinois.edu/s05/burkhardt.html
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