The Outermost Dream: Literary Sketches
With the publication ofThe Outermost Dream, a collection of essays  by William Maxwell, Graywolf Press's Rediscovery Series has saved from obscurity yet  another literary jewel. Most of these pieces originally appeared in theNew  Yorker, where Maxwell was a fiction editor for 40 years, on the occasion of the  release of a biography, memoir, diary, or collection of correspondence by or about a  noted (or not-so-noted) author. Maxwell brings such a stunning combination of intellect  and passion to his subject matter that his essays (one can hardly call them mere book  reviews) are, as Maxwell expects of great writing, astonishing. Each is a sharply focused  miniature, allowing the reader to enter the world that Maxwell describes, whether it be  that of a humble 19th-century curate-cum-diarist or the young V. S. Pritchett, who  published his first work, a joke in the ParisHerald, while working as a stock clerk  for a photographic-plate manufacturer. It is a rare pleasure to find oneself in such capable  hands.