The David Foster Wallace Archives
JA
March 19
The first I heard of the Harry Ransom Centre at the University of Texas was from my creative writing lecturer at uni. To paraphrase, he told us to save all of our notes, drafts, letters and even mindless scribbles in a box somewhere because if, by a longshot, we ever became famous novelists, we might get a goodly payout from the HRC to help our retirement.
I’m not sure if David Foster Wallace was ever told to do the same but he kept hold of his literary legacy at any rate, albeit in a stack of boxes in his garage. The archive, assembled by his wife Karen Green and his agent Bonnie Nadell, was recently acquired by the HRC and joins the likes of collections from James Joyce, Tom Stoppard, Arthur Miller, Norman Mailer and Doris Lessing.
Nadell later wrote on the archive blog:
I know there were people who felt David was too much of a ‘look ma no hands’ kind of writer, fast and clever and undisciplined. Yet anyone reading through his notes to himself will see how scrupulous they are.
Fans will be interested to know that the collection contains typical material such as drafts and research papers for his novels, as well as more idiosyncratic additions. There is, for example, a poem written when he was six or seven years old, entitled ‘Viking Poem’, which contains the earliest known copy of his ‘signature’, as well as several annotated books from his personal library. Among these is a copy of Suttree by Cormac McCarthy. Wallace wrote on the inside cover ‘set-up is slow – does not set stage’ and then went on draw eyeglasses, a moustache and fangs on the author photo.
Images via HRC and the Book Bench
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Comments
21 Mar 10 at 7:31
If you've read Wallace then you can't deny the man possessed genius, but more than anything else, an amazing ability to bore and self-aggrandise. Writing can often inspire cargo cult fervour and I'm sure that Wallace's pirate bandanas will also go on sale soon.
...08 Sep 11 at 14:36
Alec, it’s too bad you only looked at the words. Should’ve tried reading them.
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