My interest in early 20th century writers started with my thesis for my MBA from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA, Manager as Muse. My research, from a business standpoint, into legendary Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins’ work with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Thomas Wolfe, led me to study all four groups of writers’ salons from a communications standpoint for my Ph.D, ‘Such Friends.’
The thesis was completed in 1983 on my birthday [don’t ask which one], and has languished on the shelves on the Duquesne University library since then.
One of the regular participants in my ‘Such Friends’ seminars here in Birmingham, UK, recently passed on to me an article about an upcoming film called Genius, based on the excellent A. Scott Berg biography, Max Perkins: Editor of Genius which I used as a basis for my research. Apparently it is currently being filmed starring Sean Penn.
That was all the motivation I needed. I contacted Duquesne, got an electronic copy of my thesis, and have spent the past few months re-formatting it to look professional and up to date in the 21st century.
And now it is available, thanks to 21st century technology, at http://www.lulu.com/suchfriends.
All 466 pages of it. So I highly recommend that you purchase it as a download for only £3. Soon it will also be available through Amazon.com, thanks to Lulu’s distribution system.
Even if you are not interested in buying it, if you have the chance, go to the site above and tell me what you think. I have had a fairly good experience with Lulu in the past [www.lulu.com/gypsyteacher], but not many sales.
My future plans are to take the information in Manager as Muse, get rid of all the boring academic stuff, and hopefully find a publisher for a shorter, more interesting version that focuses on the relationships, both business and personal, between Perkins and his writers, who were indeed ‘such friends.’
In the meantime, if you are interested in what all the writers on this site are doing today, follow them on Twitter @SuchFriends. Or check out any of the articles on the pages to the right.
SuchFriends Blog 