The second volume includes The Chateau, his masterpiece So Long See You Tomorrow, equally masterful ancillary short pieces written in support of that book, the second half of his short story output, as well as ALL of his collected “improvisations” ? short little 3-5 page fables he penned to various family members and friends as wedding anniversary, birthday and Christmas presents. Story goes he would roll up his handwritten Christmas improvisations and pin them to the boughs of his Christmas tree. What a beautiful thing to envision. I forgot if it’s in either the first or second volume, but there is also a beautiful essay he wrote when he was approaching 90, on what it’s meant for him to be a reader.

Maxwell is really a treasure. He was an editor at the New Yorker for 40 years, and during that stint he edited the likes of Updike, Salinger, Nabokov and good friend Eudora Welty. That said, he understands economy in writing and the difference between the well chosen and less than well chosen word.

If I’m correct, I still think there is a video floating around the web of his 1995 appearance on the Charlie Rose show.

Yup.

http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/2952

I’ve added William Maxwell to the list of people I need to learn more about.

Another superb author along these lines is Dickens. A no-brainer why John Irving cherishes him. Yet another is a bit more obscure: the completely overlooked and under-appreciated late great William Maxwell. “There Will Come Swallows” is probably the sweetest book I’ve ever written about a mother’s importance within her family. “So Long and See You Tomorrow” is another. I can’t remember the author’s name who blurbed about that short novel, but in essence he said if you ever saw someone reading that book you might be tempted to marry that person.

Ian McEwan’s “The Child in Time” is another. Probably his most “upbeat” novel, and I’ve read them all.

These spring to mind without my having to jog my memory to much.