Albert Erskine at Random House: The Cormac McCarthy Years
AbstractThis article examines the relationship between contemporary American author Cormac McCarthy and Albert Erskine, his editor at Random House for more than twenty years. The relationship between Erskine and McCarthy is a crucial one not only because it gives an insight into the working practices of McCarthy, a man who has long resisted attempts to gain insights into his private life, but also because it allows a more general investigation of the influence of an editor on an author. In order to construct this investigation, the article draws on archival and manuscript sources, including unpublished letters, drafts and other communication between the two men.