I’m David Downing, a fiction editor operating as Maxwellian Editorial Services.
Why “Maxwellian”?
Because I’ve erected a little mental shrine to guide my editing efforts, and upon it to light my path are glowing, graven images of two Maxwells: the great Maxwell Perkins (the Maxwell on the left), editor of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, among many others, and all-but-co-author of Thomas Wolfe’s best (and maybe only endurable) work, and the New Yorker editor (and wonderful writer) William Maxwell (the Maxwell on the right).
Both were the kind of editor I think most writers dream of working with: attentive, probing readers, and fully engaged, resourceful, respectful and humane partners in the enterprise of shaping and perfecting each story. I edit because I enjoy doing my best to serve those “Maxwellian” functions for my authors.
Thanks for your interest. If after reviewing the rest of my site you’d like to learn more about how we might work together, I’d love to hear from you. Send me an email at maxwellianeditorial@gmail [dot] com.
And if you’d like to learn more about “my” two Maxwells, check out:
- Maxwell Perkins: Editor of Genius, A. Scott Berg
- What There Is To Say, We Have Said: The Correspondence of Eudora Welty and William Maxwell, Suzanne Marrs, Ed.
- My Mentor, Alec Wilkinson
- “Imperishable Maxwell,” John Updike, The New Yorker (Sept 8, 2008)
- So Long, See You Tomorrow, William Maxwell (novel)
- All the Days and Nights, William Maxwell (collected stories)
