"Thoroughly researched and elegantly written . Groenland has done a service to scholars of both Carver and Wallace in telling the stories of their relationships with Lish and Pietsch in such intricate detail." -- The Review of English Studies "A refreshing and overdue exercise in cultural iconoclasm . [A] compelling study." -- ASAP Journal "In this groundbreaking book, Tim Groenland shines a light on that most elusive figure, the literary editor. Digging deep into the work of two high-profile editors - Gordon Lish and Michael Pietsch - as they collaborated with two major writers - Raymond Carver and David Foster Wallace - The Art of Editing combines in-depth archival research with perceptive close readings. The book not only offers a revelatory account of the editor's art; it also tells a fresh story about the minimalist and maximalist styles of contemporary American fiction. We may live in an age of celebrity authors, but The Art of Editing shows us conclusively that, as Groenland memorably puts it, 'even extraordinary minds never work alone'.

" -- Adam Kelly, Senior Lecturer in American Literature, University of York, UK, and author of American Fiction in Transition: Observer-Hero Narrative, the 1990s, and Postmodernism (Bloomsbury, 2013) "Under precepts of genetic criticism and a conception of the social dimension of the production of literature, Tim Groenland reads closely in contrast the authorial-only versus the authorial-and-editorial prose of Raymond Carver with Gordon Lish and David Foster Wallace with Michael Pietsch. His study is a searching investigation of the convergence and overlap of authorial and editorial creativity in literary writing and commercial publishing." -- Hans Walter Gabler, Professor Emeritus of English and Editorial Scholarship, Ludwig Maximilians Universität Munich, Germany " The Art of Editing is an outstanding account of the role of the modern editor from the beginning of the twentieth century onwards, as well as a major contribution to scholarship on the work of Raymond Carver and David Foster Wallace. Groenland offers an innovative approach to identifying the paradoxes of the fiction editor that will be an indispensable book for scholars interested in both the publishing history of modern fiction and in theoretical questions of authorship and literary production." -- Alice Bennett, Senior Lecturer of English, Liverpool Hope University, UK, and author of Contemporary Fictions of Attention (Bloomsbury, 2018).