Portrait of Maxwell Perkins

Birthday profile

Maxwell Perkins

Maxwell Perkins, American editor (died 1947)

Born
September 20, 1884
Age in 2026
142
Zodiac sign
Virgo
Birth year
1884

About Maxwell Perkins

William Maxwell Evarts "Max" Perkins was an American book editor, best remembered for discovering authors Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, and Thomas Wolfe. Initially, no one at Scribner's except Perkins had liked The Romantic Egotist, the working title of Fitzgerald's first novel, and it was rejected. It was through Fitzgerald that Perkins met Ernest Hemingway, publishing his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. After a tremendous struggle, Perkins induced Wolfe to cut 90,000 words from his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel (1929).

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Maxwell Perkins timeline

  1. It was through Fitzgerald that Perkins met Ernest Hemingway, publishing his first major novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926.
  2. After a tremendous struggle, Perkins induced Wolfe to cut 90,000 words from his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel (1929).

The world when Maxwell Perkins was born

Maxwell Perkins was born in 1884. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Headlines and milestones

  • Top headlineGrover Cleveland elected president
  • Technology milestoneFirst roller coaster opens at Coney Island
  • Notable inventionRoller coaster
  • World population~1.44B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderChester A. Arthur
  • U.S. population53.7M

1884 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Maxwell Perkins's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure18842026
Population53.7M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Library of Congress. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.