My Mentor: A Young Writer's Friendship with William Maxwell

A compelling reflection on wisdom, friendship, and the craft of writing, My Mentor is also the touching story of a young man's education at the hands of a master, William Maxwell. At age twenty-four, Alec Wilkinson approached Maxwell in hopes of being taught to write. A quarter century of friendship followed.
As a fiction editor of The New Yorker, Maxwell was unquestionably one of the past century's most respected editors; as the author of the masterpieces They Came Like Swallows and So Long, See You Tomorrow, he was one of its greatest American writers. His unparalleled ear for language and eye for detail, his depth of understanding and experience, make his instructions on writing an essential guide to the craft. In honoring this great man of letters, Wilkinson creates a "deft and sympathetic portrait" (New York Times Book Review). |

"A loving, vivid memoir of a lovely man, whose spirit still touches those who knew him, and those who read him." -- John Updike

" [My Mentor is] an immersion in the virtues of wit, decency, justice, profound imagination and the mysteries of love and loyalty."--Reynolds Price

"[B]eautiful, exact, significant prose . . . a permanent meditation on fathers and sons, on apprenticeship, and , above all, on loss."--Adam Gopnik

"Elegant, engrossing, and soulful. Alec Wilkinson writes with more intensity and dedication than just about anyone."--Ian Frazier

"[MY MENTOR is a] brilliant and affecting masterwork.  I can't think of another memoir to match its selfless candor and lyric grace."--Patricia Hampl

"An instance of human trust and connection, of enduring wisdom generously offered and gratefully received." -- Robert Coles