Wallace, David Foster

This collection comprises: Computer-generated typescript of "Pop Quiz," 9 pp with 3 corrections in ink in Wallace's hand; paper loss in upper left corner of first four leaves from staple removal — Release form from spelunker flophouse magazine, accomplished by Wallace in ink with his name, signature, phone number, date ("9/20/97"), address and note reading "Please do let me see and proofread the galleys [followed by a variation on a "smiley face"]" — another form from the magazine with Wallace's signature in black ink (to be reproduced in facsimile in the magazine) — Computer-generated typescript letter to editors Chris Kubica and Wendy Morgan, signed "David W." and with manuscript postscript "Correct mss version also enclosed …." — Page- proofs, 12pp., heavily corrected by Wallace in red ink and with annotations by him in blue ink — A copy of spelunker flophouse, volume one, issue 4, 1997, with "Pop Quiz" on pp. 30–41 — a copy of Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999). First edition. A fine copy in dust-jacket, signed by Wallace on the title. Contains "Octet," the revised and expanded version of "Pop Quiz."  

Chris Kubica 

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"Please Do Not Mess with My Syntax — 99% of 'Errors' Here Were Intentional … Who Rewrote My Damn Story?"

The complete evolution of David Foster Wallace's most famous short story, which he called his "sentimental favorite" short story. After the world-wide success of his novel Infinite Jest,  Wallace submitted his short story "Pop Quiz" to the Chicago literary magazine spelunker flophouse in autumn 1997.  After the story was accepted, Wallace received page-proofs in late September.  He was not amused by the many small changes that had been made to his manuscript and returned the proofs with so many corrections the galleys appear to be blood-stained.  General remarks we written in a larger hand in blue in. At the bottom of the second page, after writing "No comma after 'I.e.," he writes in blue, "(Assume I know what I'm doing & that non-standard punctuation is intentional, please")." These forceful corrections bring the very determined author to life in red and blue ink. They provide a remarkable guide to Wallace's thinking on syntax and punctuation and their central place in his writing.

Of the short story "Octet," Zadie Smith wrote, "how you feel about 'Octet' will make or break you a a reader of Wallace, because what he's really asking is for you to have faith in something he cannot possibly ever finally determine in language … his sincerity, his apparent desperation to 'connect' with his reader in a genuine way." 

A revealing archive, charting the evolution of a major twentieth-century American short story. Wallace material of this calibre is rare on the market.