READINGS

[Essay] NOVEL GAZING By William Maxwell, from “The Impulse Toward Autobiographical Fiction,” a 1963 lecture that is being published for the first time in the collection The Writer as Illusionist, edited and introduced by Alec Wilkinson, out next month from Godine. An autobiographical novelist is the kind of man who would go to the funeral of somebody who had been like a father to him, and worry all through the one-hundred-and-third Psalm because he has absentmindedly worn brown shoes with a black suit. “As for man,” the minister says solemnly, “his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. /For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone. And the place thereof shall know it no more…” The novelist has heard him, all right. But were people…

You're reading a preview of

Harper's (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2023

DiscountMags is a licensed distributor (not a publisher) of the above content and Publication through Zinio LLC. Accordingly, we have no editorial control over the Publications. Any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including those made in Publications offered on our website, are those of the respective author(s) or publisher(s) and not of DiscountMags. DiscountMags does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, truthfulness, or usefulness of all or any portion of any publication or any services or offers made by third parties, nor will we be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information contained in any Publication, or your use of services offered, or your acceptance of any offers made through the Service or the Publications. For content removal requests, please contact Zinio.