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Quote by William Maxwell

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ANCESTORS: A Family History

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William Maxwell
William Maxwell

William Maxwell, born on August 16, 1908, was an accomplished editor and writer from the United States. His contributions to the literary world were primarily in the editing and promotion of author's works, particularly during his tenure at The New Yorker magazine, where he had a profound impact on the growth of many modern authors. more

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“Pursuing a family history beyond a simple catalogue of names is always evidence of separation, of severing ties at least to the extent of holding one’s relations at arm’s length. The family member who want to make a private gift of a family tree to a close circle of relatives soon becomes the historian who estranges her antecedents by locating them “in history”. I found that family history, which humanizes those who might otherwise be mere faces in a crowd, also defamiliarized those closest to me, giving their lives a larger pattern than they had when they were lived. They became both more and less themselves. I consoled myself by thinking that this is what history does to us too. As we grow older we see not how unique our lives have been, but how representative we were and are; that we are part of the figure in the carpet woven by events, by chance and accident, and by the play of forces more powerful than us.”

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