William Maxwell was born in Lincoln, Illinois, where So Long, See You Tomorrow is set. Along with publishing his own writing, he worked as an editor of the New Yorker for forty years, editing the likes of John Updike, J.D. Salinger, and Eudora Welty. Like David Wroblewski described, So Long is part fact, part fiction. The affair and its tragic consequences between the farmer and his friend’s wife were actual events taken from the Illinois State Historical Library. And at the age of ten, Maxwell suffered the death of his mother from the 1918 influenza epidemic. He wrote of his loss, "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away." This life changing event would be at the center of many of his works.I’ll put out a few questions over the next few days but please feel free to start your own post if there is something you want to discuss. Look at the comments on the last post for some good questions from Larisa. I’m really interested in hearing what everyone thinks about the book.
