letters between not just as scott fitzgerald and max perkins, but ernest hemingway, ring lardner, taylor caldwell. erskine caldwell, james jones, allen payne, marjorie rawlings, i could name another 40 of the most important writers in this country between the two world wars and one man discovered and developed all of them. this is a man, max perkins, who changed the course of the american river basically. i had very good luck because in that moment there was teaching in princeton, carlos baker had just finished his epic biography of ernest hemingway. i went to this office and asked if i might work with him. i said i have a great idea for a book. i want to write a book about max perkins, it is a fantastic idea, max perkins is the great enigma of american literature, no one has ever written about him. the big question is whether you can write about him. looking at your transcript here, a very solid d- work, it is a great idea. why, he suggested, don't you write your senior thesis, why don't you do that on perkins'? if you are still interested, carry on, write a book and you have written an interesting thesis. i spent basically my last