Maxwell Perkins

One of the goals an editor strives to achieve when working on a manuscript is doing their job so well that no one notices they revised the text at all. The problem with successful editors, however, is that their names are often forgotten in lieu of the authors whose work they are editing.

One such editor is Maxwell Perkins. Perkins was an influential editor who worked with famous authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe. Perkins began his career working at The New York Times before being hired in 1910 at Charles Scribner’s Sons, a prestigious New York publishing house.

Perkins’ first breakthrough as an editor at Scribner’s came from a manuscript titled The Romantic Egoist, written by a 22-year-old Princeton graduate named F. Scott Fitzgerald. The work had been submitted to numerous other editors who had bombarded it with negative comments, but Perkins saw potential. Perkins said, “If we aren’t going to publish a talent like this, it is a very serious thing… we might as well go out of business.” Working with Perkins, Fitzgerald rewrote his manuscript twice and renamed it This Side of Paradise before it was published in 1920. Perkins also had a big influence on Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby.

Perkins also worked with Ernest Hemingway, a writer who, like Fitzgerald, was extremely popular. Perkins helped Hemingway publish his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. Perkins continued to work with both Fitzgerald and Hemingway after their first novels were published.

In 1928, Thomas Wolfe submitted his first novel O Lost to Scribner’s after already being rejected by numerous publishers. Once again, Perkins saw potential in a rejected manuscript and helped Wolfe; the two spent months editing and restructuring the novel until it was published in 1929 under the title Look Homeward, Angel.

Maxwell Perkins represents the important position an editor holds; without people like him, authors such as Fitzgerald and Hemingway never would have entered the world of writing.

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Informational Interviews

After deciding that I wanted to be an editor, I realized that I knew almost nothing about the different types of editors or what avenues I could take after graduation. I started searching the web and looking for professionals whom I could interview for more information.

One such professional that I found online was Karen Newcombe, a freelance editor and writer who also specializes in publishing and marketing. I interviewed Newcombe over Skype, and we discussed the main responsibilities of an editor, the importance of finding an internship, and how imperative it is to write every day.

Newcombe also described her experience as a freelance editor: “If you are a freelancer, you must be able to do multiple things — when I get a book I want to do part/all of the writing, the editing, the layout, and coach [the writers] through the publishing process,” she said. “Then, I want to help them market and build their author platform, so I need to have multiple talents.”

One of my biggest questions during all of the informational interviews that I conducted was whether or not I needed to go to graduate school in order to get hired. Newcombe and numerous other editors agreed that graduate school was not a necessity; unless I was planning on specializing and editing manuscripts such as scientific journals or the job market was too competitive to get a job, I should be just fine with a bachelor’s degree.

I intend to focus on editing for publishing houses, and I expressed my concern to Newcombe about the competitiveness in the publishing industry. She said, “There is a huge publishing industry for business — for example, Blue Cross Health Care… has a massive publishing department cranking out tons of newsletters, magazines, informative articles, brochures, flyers, training manuals, and much more… The computer industry needs technical writers and people who can edit technical writing. Every industry has their own associations that write newsletters for them, and there are several dozen (or several hundred) trade publications for each industry as well. The U.S. Government is the largest publisher in the world.” There are endless opportunities for editors.

After talking to seasoned editors like Newcombe, I feel more prepared to enter the world of editing.

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Editors Throughout History

Editors must have keen eyes for mistakes; they are the last to see a product before publication. An entertaining article from The Daily Edge features some of the worst mistakes from magazines and newspapers that editors failed to catch, including a headline stating “Attention Incestors!” rather than “Investors” and a spelling error claiming that a man was on drugs when he was actually playing the drums.

These simple mistakes changed the meaning of the works they were published in, but were quickly addressed in corrections. However, they led me to wonder what other situations editors have influenced.

The Gilded Age was a period of time following the Civil War in which there was political corruption and scandal. Newspapers played a very important role in investigating and exposing the wrongdoings of public officials. The major papers, however, were biased; they took strong political stances that were reflected in their reporting. One of the biggest scandals during the Gilded Age was the Whiskey Ring.

The Whiskey Ring was a tax-evasion scheme developed by the newly-empowered liberal Republican political machine in Missouri. The schemers bribed officials in the production of whiskey to underreport their numbers to avoid paying the whiskey tax – and therefore significantly increase their profits. The money was diverted to the local political machine to increase its power over potential rivals. The scandal was revealed in 1875 in a series of investigations by Myron Colony, the commercial editor of the St. Louis Democrat, a paper opposed to the Republican machine.

It is surprising to see that editors even have a place in history, let alone a rich narrative. Along with publishers and writers, editors are an imperative part of the process to keep the government and other establishments honest and accountable, in the past and today.

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What is the Role of an Editor?

As a young girl, I never once thought, “I want to grow up and be an editor.” Other more exciting occupations caught my interest, such as being an astronaut, a scientist, or even a teacher. However, as a junior in college, scheduling an internship with an editor for the summer, I find myself wondering what exactly that job title entails.

NPR’s article quotes professionals with experience in the editing field, such as Rebecca Saletan, vice president and editorial director of Riverhead Books. She says, “The first task is [to] just take [a book] at face value: What is this writer trying to say? What is the project of this book?” Saletan explains. “Once you understand that, then you have to make tough decisions: Is this a good idea? Will there be an audience for it? Is this the right person to tell the story? Do they have the ability? If they don’t… what’s lacking?… What I’m looking for is a mind that is capable of grappling with the structure of something as big as a book.”

Aside from looking for the perfect book and giving it an online presence, editors also work hands-on with an author’s manuscript. There are universal commandments concerning copyediting that editors must remember. These four are courtesy of Amy Eishohn, in her book The Copyeditor’s Handbook:

• Thou shalt not lose or damage part of a manuscript.
• Thou shalt not introduce an error into a text that is correct.
• Thou shalt not inadvertently change the author’s meaning.
• Thou shalt not miss a critical deadline.

Copyediting should not be noticeable, however. Saletan says, “The editing certainly shouldn’t be showoff-y in any way.” The author places trust in the editor, which results in an inevitable intimacy and shouldn’t be taken advantage of.

As I learn more about editing, I become increasingly excited to see what the future holds.

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