Early Novels and Stories: Bright Center of Heaven / They Came Like Swallows / The Folded Leaf / Time Will Darken It / Stories 1938-1956

by William Maxwell, Christopher Carduff (Editor)

In 1934, at age 26, William Maxwell left small-town Illinois for New York City, convinced that life and literature were elsewhere. “I had no idea then,” he later wrote, “that three-quarters of the material I would need for the rest of my writing life was already at my disposal. My father and mother. My brothers. The look of things. The Natural History of home . . . All there, waiting for me to learn my trade and recognize instinctively what would make a story.”

With his second book, They Came Like Swallows (1937), Maxwell found his signature subject matter—the fragility of human happiness—as well as his voice, a quiet, cadenced Midwestern voice that John Updike has called one of the wisest and kindest in American fiction. Set against the background of the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, this short novel presents the loving character of Elizabeth Morison, a devoted wife and mother, through the eyes of those whom she is fated to leave decades before her time.

Edmund Wilson described The Folded Leaf (1945) as “a quite unconventional study of adolescent relationships—between two boys, with a girl in the offing—in Chicago and in a Middle Western college: very much lived and very much seen.” He praised this “drama of the immature” for the compassion Maxwell brings to his male protagonists, whose intensely felt, unarticulated bond is beyond their inchoate ability to understand.

Time Will Darken It (1948) is a drama of the mature: a good man’s struggle to keep duty before desire and his family’s needs before his own. It paints a portrait of Draperville, Illinois, in 1912, a proud and isolated community governed by gossip, where an ambitious young woman must not overreach the limits society has placed on her sex, and an older, married gentleman must not encourage her should she dare.

Together with these major works, this Library of America edition of Maxwell’s early fiction collects his lighthearted first novel, Bright Center of Heaven (1934), out of print for nearly 70 years, and nine masterly short stories. It concludes with “The Writer as Illusionist” (1955), Maxwell’s fullest statement on the art of fiction as he practiced it.

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories, Novels, American

920 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

William Keepers Maxwell Jr. was an American novelist, and fiction editor at the New Yorker. He studied at the University of Illinois and Harvard University. Maxwell wrote six highly acclaimed novels, a number of short stories and essays, children's stories, and a memoir, Ancestors (1972). His award-winning fiction, which is increasingly seen as some of the most important of the 20th Century, has recurring themes of childhood, family, loss and lives changed quietly and irreparably. Much of his work is autobiographical, particularly concerning the loss of his mother when he was 10 years old growing up in the rural Midwest of America and the house where he lived at the time, which he referred to as the "Wunderkammer" or "Chamber of Wonders". He wrote of his loss "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." Since his death in 2000 several works of biography have appeared, including A William Maxwell Portrait: Memories and Appreciations (W. W. Norton & Co., 2004), My Mentor: A Young Man's Friendship with William Maxwell by Alec Wilkinson (Houghton-Mifflin, 2002), and William Maxwell: A Literary Life by Barbara Burkhardt (University of Illinois Press, 2005). In 2008 the Library of America published the first of two collections of William Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories, Christopher Carduff editor. His collected edition of William Maxwell's fiction, published to mark the writer's centenary, was completed by a second volume, Later Novels and Stories in the fall of 2008.'

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume is getting 5 stars from me, because it is just about the only place to read Maxwell's first novel, Bright Center of Heaven. I was further gratified to have the volume in hand, because I'm so in love I wanted to keep reading Maxwell after finishing his first novel, and so I did, immediately turning the pages to his short stories. (I'd read They Came Like Swallows prior to buying this.) Once done with the first set of stories, I immediately moved on to The Folded Leaf, continuing a love affair I didn't want to end.

I've reviewed the novels included in this volume separately, but I should mention that the 'extras' included here are just as worthwhile: not only the short stories, but also Maxwell's introduction to one novel, his preface to another, and the text of a speech about being a writer. The chronology and the notes by Christopher Carduff are very much appreciated as well, shedding interesting light on various episodes.

All in all, it's a beautiful volume (with a ribbon and slipcase, too), a Library of America subscriber edition that I found used. Of course its companion, Later Novels and Stories, is on its way to me.

[Rendi Hahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the novels in this book, They Came Like Swallows, was recommended in the Dec. 2014 Readers' Digest. The style of writing reminds me very much of Willa Cather - all of the pieces revolve around Illinois (just as hers are so tied to Nebraska), and the prose is highly descriptive, with lovely use of language. The pacing was a little slow for me, and some of the pieces left me scratching my head at the end. I might recommend reading one or two of the short novels, but the whole book was a bit much.

I marked one great quote from Bright Center of Heaven:
"It takes a long time to restore land. You have to plant trees and you have to wait a long time for them to grow big, and you have to watch day and night to keep them from being burnt down again. So it is with men, no matter what color their skin is. If you cut down their minds and keep them cut down for generations, you can't expect anything wonderful to spring up overnight."

[Jeffrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

William Maxwell is best known as the fiction editor of The New Yorker, but his very own novels are worthy of greater esteem than they currently receive. The Library of America has published the first collection pf his early works and I must say that it is impressive. I was not aware of these books before I saw the collection so it was a rare treat to be exposed to a “hidden” treasure that needs more public awareness.

Maxwell should have been seen as a master novelist, I find his work better than the standard Vidal or Mailor. They Came Like Swallows is a gripping account of the Flu pandemic in 1918, something that has re-entered our national awareness after so long forgotten. This collection is a powerful reminder that we need to constantly re-read novels from the past just to see what we are missing.

[Jeanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished Bright Center of Heaven - it feels a bit written out-of-time, as though it could take place at any time. It seems like there always are pockets of the country that don't keep up with the faster paced cities and unfortunately, the race issues haven't changed since Maxwell wrote this. (Not enough on the personal level.) This would make a fascinating film today - how relevant all these issues still are. The language is beautiful and the characters are so vivid, as usual.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the content here is available in other, stand alone, volumes. But - the first republication of Maxwell's first novel, "Bright Center of Heaven" in 70 years!
I did not realize he edited his fiction so much - 2-3 times often.
This also includes a couple short stories not found elsewhere, and the worthwhile Introduction to the Vintage Books edition of "They Came Like Swallows".
And editor Christopher Carduff's useful "Notes" at the end of the volume, about 20 pp. of them.

[K. Fox (Cahill) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant soft writing. Immediately ordered more of his stories. Maxwell’s writing is meant to be savored.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing.

[Gary Land · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last fall I read the Library of America's edition of Maxwell's later novels and stories. Now that I have read the collection of early novels and stories I can say that he has become one of my favorite 20th century American writers. His fiction is largely autobiographical, though he states that he freely rearranges people, events, chronology, etc. His central concern is relationships, such as a family dealing with the death of a mother in the 1918 flu epidemic in They Come Like Swallows or another family whose inner dynamics are affected by an extended stay of relatives. I find this stories, which have no high drama, nonetheless emotionally powerful. Although Maxwell spent most of his adult life as the fiction editor of the New Yorker, most of his writing is set in the small town Illinois of his boyhood. Maxwell deserves to be much better known than he is, but now that his books are in the LOA series they are preserved for the ages.

[Joel Hernandez]

So Long, See You Tomorrow was recommended to me many years ago by Alec Wilkinson, at Bread Loaf. It's a beautiful, haunting, near-perfect book. So I was thrilled when the Library of America delivered this last week. Have only read the little essay at the end, "The Writer as Illusionist," which says good things, with modesty and humor and grace you'd expect from Maxwell.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully crafted writing to savor. Stories of human frailties, foibles, and fortitude set in small town mid-west America in the early 20th century. The volume itself -- four novels, nine short stories, and appendices all between two covers -- was also a work of fine craftsmanship: hard cloth cover, excellent binding, ribbon bookmark, enclosed in a slipcase. A total joy to handle and read.