Maxwell, William

Maxwell, William

(born Aug. 16, 1908, Lincoln, Ill., U.S.—died July 31, 2000, New York, N.Y.) American editor and author. Maxwell taught English at the University of Illinois before joining the staff of The New Yorker magazine. In his 40 years there, he edited writers such as John Cheever, J.D. Salinger, Eudora Welty, and Mavis Gallant. He himself was the author of spare, evocative short stories and novels. Perhaps his best-known work is The Folded Leaf (1945), about the friendship of two small-town boys. Among his other works are the novels The Château (1961) and So Long, See You Tomorrow (1980) and the short-story collection All the Days and Nights (1995).