Tony Earley reads "Love," by William Maxwell.
This is the New Yorker fiction podcast from the New Yorker magazine.
I'm Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at the New Yorker.
Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.
This month we're going to hear love by William Maxwell.
We meant to have her for our teacher forever.
We intended to pass right up through the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades and on into high school, taking her with us.
The story was chosen by Tony early, whose short stories have been appearing in the magazine since 1990 1999.
His latest novel, the Blue Star, was published in 2008, and his new collection of stories, Mister Tall, will come out next year.
Hi, Tony.
Hi, Debra.
William Maxwell was a fiction writer and also the fiction editor of the New Yorker from 1936 to 1975.
And his story Love was published in the magazine in 1983 when he was 75.
I think you were maybe in your early twenties then.
Did you read it at that point?
No, I didn't.
I read it much later, 1983.
That's the year I graduated from college.
And so how did you come across the story?
Well, I just came through Maxwell later.
And began sort of pawing through the archives and reading the stories.