The Oral Autobiography of
John Hall Wheelock

Edited by
Matthew J. Bruccoli with Judith S. Baughman
Foreword by George Garrett

An insider history of Charles Scribner's Sons during its glory years by the poet who became editor in chief of the House of Scribner

6 x 9, 290 pages
10 halftones
cloth, ISBN 1-57003-463-X, $39.95t

ABOUT THE BOOK

During the forty-six years that John Hall Wheelock (1886–1978)—an influential literary figure and respected poet—worked at Charles Scribner's Sons, the company distinguished itself as the leading literary publishing house in America. During this golden era, Scribners included F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, James Jones, Alan Paton, George Santayana, and Thomas Wolfe among its authors. As the editor who assisted and then succeeded the legendary Maxwell Perkins as editor in chief, Wheelock worked with some of the nation's most acclaimed—yet difficult—authors. Wheelock's memoir of his remarkable life and career offers an unparalleled account of New York publishing and the American literary scene during its richest period. Wheelock's memoir extends beyond the inner workings at Scribners to his own career as a poet and his friendships with a wide circle of literary figures, including Conrad Aiken, Vachel Lindsay, Sara Teasdale, and Elinor Wylie. Wheelock's dictated autobiography traces his writing of poetry from a Harvard apprenticeship when he published his first collection in collaboration with Van Wyck Brooks, to his mature years as an esteemed figure in American letters. In addition to documenting the profession of authorship in America, Wheelock's recollections provide a vivid social history of the affluent society of his boyhood and youth before and after the turn of the nineteenth century.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Matthew J. Bruccoli, the Emily Brown Jefferies Professor of English at the University of South Carolina, is the leading authority on the House of Scribner and its authors. He is the author of Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald and the editorial director of the Dictionary of Literary Biography. He lives in Columbia.

Judith S. Baughman is the author of Literary Masters: F. Scott Fitzgerald. She lives in Columbia, South Carolina.

ALSO BY THE EDITORS

Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald
Matthew J. Bruccoli

Before Gatsby: The First 26 Short Stories
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli

To Loot My Life Clean: The Thomas Wolfe-Maxwell Perkins Correspondence
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Park Bucker

Trimalchio by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Afterword by Matthew J. Bruccoli

The Only Thing That Counts: The Ernest Hemingway-Maxwell Perkins Correspondence
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli

Fie! Fie! Fi-Fi!: A Facsimile of the 1914 Acting Script and the Musical Score with Illustrations from the Original Production
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli

Readers Companion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman

F. Scott Fitzgerald on Authorship
Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Judith S. Baughman