So Long, See You Tomorrow

So Long, See You Tomorrow is the acclaimed final novel by American writer and editor William Maxwell. Originally published in two parts in New Yorker magazine in 1979, the book appeared the following year and received the prestigious National Book Award in 1982. Maxwell was the fiction editor of the New Yorker from 1936 to 1975, making him one of the most influential literary editors of the era. He worked closely with J. D. Salinger and developed friendly relationships with authors including Eudora Welty, Vladimir Nabokov, and John Updike. He published six novels and many short stories, frequently inspired by his early life in Illinois.

So Long, See You Tomorrow is an autobiographical novel set in Maxwell’s hometown of Lincoln, Illinois. It explores the author’s memories and regrets surrounding a murder committed by his friend’s father. The story probes themes of Family Instability and Its Effect on Children, Father-Son Communication, and Memory and Fiction in a brief but expansive examination of storytelling itself.

This study guide refers to the Vintage International paperback edition published by Random House in 1996.

Content Warning: So Long, See You Tomorrow contains a death by suicide and human and animal abuse.