D. Max - Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story - A Life of David Foster Wallace

158 “The writing is going,” from a letter to Mary Karr, undated, circa spring 1992.

162 “the bravest thing,” from Lipsky, Although of Course , at 241.

162 “Life is good,” from a letter to Brad Morrow, February 29, 1992.

162 “a novel,” from a letter to Bonnie Nadell and Gerry Howard, April 5, 1992.

163 “one of the scariest days,” from a letter to Deb Larson, December 6, 1993.

163 “this soot-fest city,” from a letter to Brad Morrow, February 29, 1992.

164 “best of pals and lit combatants,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, June 8, 1992.

164 “among the most nourishing for me,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, April 10, 1992.

164 “Syracuse,” from a letter to Debra Spark, May 27, 1992.

165 “make me feel both unalone and unstressed,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, June 8, 1992.

166 “If words are all we have,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, July 15, 1992.

166 “I simply have to pound ,” and “it’s awfully pretty here,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, June 8, 1992.

167 “The Era of Skulking seems,” from a letter to Debra Spark, August 19, 1992.

167 “movies where shit blew up,” quoted in Evan Hughes, “Just Kids,” New York , October 9, 2011.

167 “I want you to know that I AM here,” from a letter to Mary Karr, undated, circa 1992.

169 “so much hidden pain and lying,” from a letter to Mary Karr, circa January 22, 1992.

169 “it heals too,” from a letter to Mary Karr, undated, circa spring 1992.

170 “terrible temper-outbursts,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, September 12, 1992.

170 “MARRY ME,” from a letter to Mary Karr, undated, circa fall 1992/winter 1993.

171 “gut instinct (I have so few gut instincts…),” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, June 22, 1992.

172 “a…go-for-the-gold-type,” from a letter to Gerry Howard, June 30, 1992.

172 “Brains and wit and technical tightrope-calisthenics,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, June 22, 1992.

173 “My notion about Mark Leyner,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, July 8, 1992.

173 “I am both bogged down,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, September 12, 1992.

173 “My whole nervous system,” from a letter to Alice Turner, December 11, 1995.

174 “I alert you in advance,” from a letter to Charlie Harris, December 26, 1992.

175 “Full-time writing is going OK,” from a letter to Debra Spark, undated, circa winter 1992/spring 1993.

176 “upping it to three or four,” from a letter to Charlie Harris, April 5, 1993.

176 “a certain icky sense about availing myself,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, March 14, 1993.

176 “the least weird writer there,” from a letter to Corey Washington, March 2, 1993.

176 “The chairman is a dreamboat,” from a letter to Dale Peterson, February 28, 1993.

Chapter 6: “Unalone and Unstressed”

177 “different masculine-model cars,” from a letter to Corey Washington, March 2, 1993.

178 “sardonic worldview perfect for the irony-filled nineties,” from a letter to Steven Moore, April 10, 1993.

178 “polite and banal”, from a letter to Corey Washington, April 16, 1993.

178 “Take this time to learn to be,” from a letter to Brandon Hobson, March 31, 1993.

178 “Even a marginal,” from a letter to Corey Washington, April 16, 1993.

180 to the “john,” from a letter to a friend, March 13, 1998.

180 “I’m having to countenance,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, September 12, 1992.

180 “Unpacking, trying to write,” from a letter to Brad Morrow, August 17, 1993.

181 “off sex,” from a letter to Linda Perla, October 15, 1993.

182 “You ask what I think it’s about,” and “Almost everything,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, June 10, 1993.

186 “here’s-what-I-think,” from “Finite Jest,” Slate , September 17, 2008.

189 “It’s just much easier having dogs,” from Lipsky, Although of Course , at 97.

191 “HOPE THIS IS READABLE,” from a letter to Sven Birkerts, November 14, 1993.

191 “80 % different from Little Brown’s,” from a letter to Steven Moore, January 25, 1994.

191 “The trick in a case like this,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, November 18, 1993.

191 “no longer manufactured outside like Eastern Europe” and “A lot of this,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, January 16, 1994.

194 “I’m mortified to have essentially,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, April 2, 1994.

195 “extremely analgesic,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, April 29, 1994.

196 “handcuffed to a wrist,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, May 27, 1994.

196 “I am sad and empty” and “stuff in the mss,” from a letter to Jonathan Franzen, July 23, 1994.

198 “ominous hernia-jokes,” from a postcard to Jonathan Franzen, circa July 1994.

198 “having this monster in my head,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, October 21, 1994.

199 “Hal’s breakdown, the one,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, November 30, 1994.

199 “I guess maybe” and “frontispiece,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, February 19, 1995.

199 “we know exactly,” from a response to a letter by Michael Pietsch, circa May 1995.

200 “it’s not,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, May 12, 1995.

200 “I bought a house,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, May 1995.

202 “Prospects for an acute and fecund,” from a postcard to Jonathan Franzen, circa March 1995.

203 “I go through a loop,” from a letter to Elizabeth Wurtzel, circa April 1995.

205 “I am uncomfortable,” from a letter to Don DeLillo, circa May 1995.

205 “you feel incipient bladder,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, circa May 1995.

205 “a state of editorial ecstasy,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, May 12, 1995.

205 “Here’s what happened,” and “I’m prepared to thumbwrestle,” from a letter by Michael Pietsch, May 22, 1995.

206 “Potential insertion into page 1229,” from a fax to Michael Pietsch, June 11, 1995.

208 “a cover that’s (troublingly, to me),” from a letter to Don DeLillo, September 10, 1995.

208 that all the magazine editors in New York, from the Schmeidel interview.

208 “a little stupider and shmuckier,” from Lipsky, Although of Course, at 41.

209 “your/our copyeditor,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, February 19, 1995.

210 “To copyeditor: Hi,” from a letter to Mike Mattil, undated, circa fall 1995.

210 “in the 8th circle of page-proof-proofreading hell,” from a letter to Debra Spark, October 1995.

210 “The more I proof these page proofs,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, October 1995.

210 “about 47,000 typos,” from a letter to Alice Turner, December 11, 1995.

210 “about 712,000,” from R. Z. Sheppard, “712,000 Typos!” Time, February 19, 1996.

211 “wobbling like a vestibulitiser’s,” from a letter to Mike Mattil, October 8, 1995.

211 “wholly ominous given our family’s,” from a letter to Alice Turner, December 11, 1995.

211 “ fucking, fucking nightmare,” from Lipsky, Although of Course , at 248.

211 “‘Masterpiece’? I’m 33 years old,” from a letter to Michael Pietsch, September 20, 1995.

212 “About the holes and lacunae,” from a letter to David Markson, November 28, 1995.

216 “brilliant but somewhat bloated,” from Publishers Weekly, January 29, 1996.

216 “almost certainly the biggest and boldest,” from Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 1996.

216 “mov[ed] toward us like an ocean disturbance,” from Sven Birkerts, “The Alchemist’s Retort,” The Atlantic, February 1996.