The Pale King updates from around the web:

 

The most interesting tidbit is from EW.com (David Foster Wallace novel 'The Pale King' due in 2010) [DFW's editor Michael Pietsch] told EW exclusively that upon publication Little, Brown will create a website to make large chunks of the manuscript available to fans, so they can see how the book came together and "have a detailed sense of Wallace as a working writer."

 

The Millions - Inter Alia #16: Footnoting D.T. Max's DFW Piece.

Omnivoracious - David Foster Wallace: The Coming of The Pale King.

Guardian UK Books Blog - Second thoughts about unfinished work.

Guardian UK Culture Books - 'Have I broken your heart?' (DFW focus 2nd half of the article)

 

TPK links from around the web:

 

npr.org - David Foster Wallace's Final, Unfinished Novel (D. T. Max speaks with npr, audio link included).

Secrets of the City - David Foster Wallace's Last Novel.

Harper's Magazine - The Voice of Days of Old and Days to Be.

LA Times Books - For David Foster Wallace's Survivors, a Paper Puzzle.

biblioklept - A Few Thoughts On DFW’s “Wiggle Room” (A well written analysis of Wiggle Room).

New York Magazine Culture Blog - Anderson: Wrestling With the Mini-Biography of David Foster Wallace.

cjmewett - D. F. Wallace’s unfinished novel, from The New Yorker.

Claremont Insider - Emotional Truth.

 

And for a change of pace, extensive thoughts from someone who doesn't appreciate DFW's writing (it's true, he's not everyone's cup of tea). Michael admits in the article that he's not read DFW to any great breadth or depth... to me that helps explain his take:

 

2blowhards -  The DFW story.

 

 

Dear Howling Fantods members, 

Many of you have asked about forums. I've been nervous about them ever since we lost the free hosted forums in the ezboard hack many years ago. I had no control over the backup of the forums and we lost many great threads, as did many other forums that were running on ezboard.

Anyway, I've been playing around with a couple of forum setups hosted here at the fantods and I think we're almost ready to enter testing. Which means I'll soon need some volunteers to help test and setup the forums. Let me know if you're interested.

Nick

 

 

Little, Brown and Company got in touch (Thanks, Marlena). Full press release below. Note that publication is planned for early 2010 and that Michael Pietsch will work with Karen Green and Bonnie Nadell to edit the work for publication.

 

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DAVID FOSTER WALLACE’S LAST NOVEL, THE PALE KING, TO BE PUBLISHED IN SPRING 2010

New York, NY – March 1, 2009) Little, Brown and Company announced today that it will publish David Foster Wallace’s unfinished novel, THE PALE KING, which is the subject today of an article and excerpt in The New Yorker. Little, Brown acquired North American rights to the book in a deal negotiated by Wallace’s agent, Bonnie Nadell of the Frederick Hill Bonnie Nadell Literary Agency. Publication is planned for early 2010.

At the time of his death in September 2008, Wallace left behind a substantial portion of a novel he had been working on for many years. Set at an IRS tax-return processing center in Illinois in the mid 1980s, THE PALE KING is the story of a crew of entry-level processors, “wigglers” in IRS jargon (for their similarity to newly hatched tadpoles), and their attempts to do their job in the face of soul-crushing tedium and bureaucratic malevolence. The novel’s main character, David Wallace, is newly arrived at this job and learning from all around him amid epic institutional confusion. The partial novel runs several hundred thousand words and will include notes, outlines, and other material to help readers understand this great unfinished work.

Michael Pietsch, Wallace’s longtime editor, said, “The Pale King is an astonishment. It is David  Wallace’s effort to weave a novel out of life’s dark matter: boredom, banality, the ‘irrelevant complexity’ of everyday life, all the maddening stuff that stands between us and the rest of the world and through which we have to travel to arrive at joy. This was as ambitious as anything he ever did, a novel that attempts to move readers deeply and help them live their lives.” Pietsch will work with Wallace’s widow, Karen Green, and his agent and literary executor, Bonnie Nadell, in editing this work for posthumous publication.

Little, Brown and Company is the publisher of many of David Foster Wallace’s books, including Infinite Jest, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Consider the Lobster, Oblivion, and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group. Founded in 1837, Little, Brown has long been recognized as a publisher committed to publishing fiction of the highest quality.

 

 

A few more articles:

 

LA News - David Foster Wallace's Unfinished Novel Unearthed

LA Times Blogs - Jacket Copy - The last tycoon: David Foster Wallace

The Washington Post - New Yorker Publishes Part Of Unfinished Wallace Novel

 

StarTribune.com has run an AP update about The Pale King.

 

Little, Brown said in a statement Sunday that the novel runs "several hundred thousand words and will include notes, outlines, and other material."

 

Also at:

BBC News - Final Foster Wallace work found

Gawker - David Foster Wallace Novel, Unfinished, Coming Next Year

kottke.org - The Pale King, David Foster Wallace

MetaFilter - David Foster Wallace's unfinished opus

 

 

 

Other updates:

 

Another conference! This one is in the UK. David Hering based at the University of Liverpool has got in touch with details. Greg Carlisle (author of the excellent IJ resource Elegant Complexity) is a confirmed keynote speaker.
 

From David:

The passing of the writer David Foster Wallace in September 2008 presents not only a tragic and significant loss to the literary world, but also an important opportunity to consider the impact and magnitude of the remarkable body of work he leaves us. From the irreverency and piercing social commentary of his journalism in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again and Consider The Lobster to the monumental, sprawling majesty of his gargantuan novel Infinite Jest, Wallace's writing is increasingly considered to be one of the most significant literary canons of the second half of the twentieth century.

On 29-30th July, The University Of Liverpool is hosting an international conference devoted to discussion and scholarly appraisal of Wallace's work. Papers of 20 minutes duration are welcome on any aspect of Wallace's fiction or non-fiction. Depending on response, there may also be places available for non-scholars who wish to attend the conference (although it is likely at this stage that only scholars will be permitted to give papers).

Confirmed Keynote Speaker:

Greg Carlisle (Morehead State University, Kentucky) – Greg Carlisle is the author of Elegant Complexity , the most extensive and detailed published study of Wallace's novel Infinite Jest available.

Abstracts of approx. 250 words and any enquiries about the conference should be sent to David Hering at the University of Liverpool at the following email address: D.Hering (at) liverpool.ac.uk  (replace the at with @ and remove the surrounding spaces) by Friday 22nd May 2009.