Considered by many to be the greatest writer of his generation, David Foster Wallace was at the height of his creative powers when he committed suicide in 2008. In a sweeping portrait of Wallace鈥檚 writing and thought and as a measure of his importance in literary history, The Legacy of David Foster Wallace gathers cutting-edge, field-defining scholarship by critics alongside remembrances by many of his writer friends, who include some of the world鈥檚 most influential authors.
In this elegant volume, literary critics scrutinize the existing Wallace scholarship and at the same time pioneer new ways of understanding Wallace鈥檚 fiction and journalism. In critical essays exploring a variety of topics鈥攊ncluding Wallace鈥檚 relationship to American literary history, his place in literary journalism, his complicated relationship to his postmodernist predecessors, the formal difficulties of his 1996 magnum opus Infinite Jest, his environmental imagination, and the 鈥渟ocial life鈥 of his fiction and nonfiction鈥攃ontributors plumb sources as diverse as Amazon.com reader recommendations, professional book reviews, the 2009 Infinite Summer project, and the David Foster Wallace archive at the University of Texas鈥檚 Harry Ransom Center.
The creative writers鈥攊ncluding Don DeLillo, Jonathan Franzen, George Saunders, Rick Moody, Dave Eggers, and David Lipsky鈥攁nd Wallace鈥檚 Little, Brown editor, Michael Pietsch, reflect on the person behind the volumes of fiction and nonfiction created during the author鈥檚 too-short life.
All of the essays, critical and creative alike, are written in an accessible style that does not presume any background in Wallace criticism. Whether the reader is an expert in all things David Foster Wallace, a casual fan of his fiction and nonfiction, or completely new to Wallace, The Legacy of David Foster Wallace will reveal the power and innovation that defined his contribution to literary life and to self-understanding. This illuminating volume is destined to shape our understanding of Wallace, his writing, and his place in history.
鈥The Legacy of David Foster Wallace is a necessary book鈥攊t will find a place in virtually every university and college library across the land. Surely it will be among the first critical works consulted by any scholar or student venturing into the work of Wallace and will interest the more ordinary, if unusually ambitious, reader as well.鈥濃擬ark McGurl, author, The Program Era
鈥淭his is a collection whose character is faithful to the spirit of Wallace's work: considerate, intelligent, funny, even self-deprecating鈥攁n excellent addition to both the fan鈥檚 and the critic鈥檚 library.鈥濃擫ydia Millet, Pulitzer Prize finalist for Love in Infant Monkeys
Don DeLillo
Dave Eggers
Ed Finn
Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Jonathan Franzen
Paul Giles
Heather Houser
David Lipsky
Rick Moody
Ira B. Nadel
Michael Pietsch
Josh Roiland
George Saunders
Molly Schwartzburg
