Harper's Magazine has made available PDFs of every...

Harper’s Magazine has made available PDFs of every David Foster Wallace piece they’ve published, including the essay often cited as his best nonfiction work, Shipping Out (AKA, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again). (thx, bill s.)

Submitted by crazymonk on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 5:00am.

Comments (7)

Wasn't he in the midst of working on a new novel?

Jesse | Mon, 09/15/2008 - 11:39am

The last PDF in the Harper's list says it's from a longer work in progress. One might assume he was working on another novel, but who knows.

crazymonk | Mon, 09/15/2008 - 11:53am

I imagine at some point some of his unfinished work will get published. I wonder if he left a suicide note. And if he did, I wonder if he asked his wife to burn all his stuff. Authors tend to ask for that when they die.

Obviously this amazing and talented man battled with some huge demons. I wonder if part of the problem is that he couldn't imagine writing anything better than IJ. That has got to be daunting and seems to effect many talented artists. It can put you in a state or paralysis.

Anyway, his death does suck. Elissa was just finishing reading Consider the Lobster. Maybe now I can get her to read IJ.

Los Angeles Anthony | Mon, 09/15/2008 - 12:24pm

"I wonder if part of the problem is that he couldn't imagine writing anything better than IJ."

I don't think so, especially after reading the quotes from his parents in the New York Times obit: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/15/books/15wallace.html

He obviously was dealing with life-long depression, and if you believe the Grenada House letter I just posted was written by him, he had a serious suicide attempt even before he wrote Infinite Jest. Let alone the fact that he's been fairly prolific since Infinite Jest, with writings that many think surpass his fictional work.

Seems to me that he had a recurring disease that finally caught up with him.

crazymonk | Mon, 09/15/2008 - 12:35pm

I agree that he had a disease and that is the cause of his suicide. I just wonder if the daunting task of matching IJ added to that mountain of depression. In the Times obit they also say:

"consumed with his work and its worth, perpetually at odds with himself. Journalists who interviewed him invariably commented on his discomfort with celebrity and his self-questioning."

Los Angeles Anthony | Mon, 09/15/2008 - 2:08pm

"Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the wars over usage" remains one of my favorite essays of all time. That and A Dictionary of Modern American Usage made me want to become a copy editor.

Josh | Mon, 09/15/2008 - 10:58pm

You're right- it's a jaw-droppingly amazing essay.

Jesse | Wed, 09/17/2008 - 7:44am