William Keepers Maxwell Jr. (August 16, 1908 – July 31, 2000) was an American editor, novelist, short story writer, essayist, children's author, and memoirist.

summa cum laude from the University of Illinois in 1930 where he was class salutatorian, elected to Phi Beta Kappa,[1] poetry editor of The Daily Illini,[2] and a member of Sigma Pi fraternity.

After the flu epidemic, young Maxwell had to move away from his house, which he referred to as the "Wunderkammer" or "Chamber of Wonders".

He spoke of his loss, "It happened too suddenly, with no warning, and we none of us could believe it or bear it ... the beautiful, imaginative, protected world of my childhood swept away.

In 2008, the Library of America published the first of two collections of works by Maxwell, Early Novels and Stories, edited by Christopher Carduff.

His collected edition of Maxwell's fiction, published to mark the writer's centenary, was completed by publication of the second volume, Later Novels and Stories, in the fall of 2008.

Emily Maxwell was an accomplished painter, winning the Medal of Honor in 1986 from the National Association of Women Artists.