Things to do today:

Sh*t, f*ck and p*ss                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 October 18, 2023 | [Read Online]( Things to do today: Sh*t, f*ck and p*ss [Cole Schafer]( October 18, 2023 [fb]( [tw]( [in]( [email](mailto:?subject=Post%20from%20The%20Process.&body=Things%20to%20do%20today%3A%3A%20Sh%2At%2C%20f%2Ack%20and%20p%2Ass%0A%0Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.getthesticky.com%2Fp%2Fthings-to-do-today) A brief reminder: You'll soon be receiving The Process from [coleschafer.com](. To ensure these emails don’t end up collecting dust in your spam bucket, add “cole@coleschafer.com” to your contacts. Ernest Hemingway probably wouldn’t have become Ernest Hemingway if it weren’t for a man by the name of Max Perkins. You’ve likely never heard of Mr. Perkins because he wanted it this way. His credo was, “The book belongs to the author.” However, while Perkins worked mostly in the shadows of giants like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, Edith Wharton and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, his degree of influence was incomprehensible. Perkins was to these authors what Phil Jackson was to Michael Jordan. He wasn’t just an editor but a friend, a money-lender, a career advisor, a therapist and a marriage counselor (Lord knows Hemingway needed one). Perkins was also a punching bag. He was forced to take a lot of shit; not just from the contrary writers he managed but the highly conservative publishing house that was his employer, Charles Scribner’s Sons. There’s a funny story where Perkins jotted down a series of four-letter words he had read in Hemingway’s second novel, [A Farewell to Arms](. Fully aware it would be a dogfight with his publisher to keep Hemingway’s gruff vernacular in the final manuscript, Perkins was reminding himself to get ahead of the bloodbath in the following day’s meeting. Unfortunately, he wrote down the words “shit”, “fuck” and “piss” on his desk calendar whose heading read: “Things to Do Today.” When Mr. Scribner happened upon Perkin’s calendar, he said something along the lines of, “If you need to remind yourself to do those things, you’re in great trouble.” Perkins possessed something that most editors don’t. Conviction. He had to fight tooth and nail to get Charles Scribner’s Sons to give F. Scott Fitzgerald a chance. And while this might sound preposterous by today’s standards, at the time it was like trying to get a catholic Church to hand out Playboys after mass. By [Cole Schafer]( P.S. Did this newsletter leave you feeling inspired? Tell someone to [subscribe](. [tw]( [ig]( [in]( Update your email preferences or unsubscribe [here]( © 2023 The Process 228 Park Ave S, #29976, New York, New York 10003, United States [[beehiiv logo]Powered by beehiiv](