Nearly five years after David Foster Wallace’s tragic death, Bryan A. Garner—the lexicographer whose work Wallace rhapsodized about—has released a new book containing the last long interview that Wallace gave. Entitled Quack This Way (Wallace’s phrase), the interview explores in great depth the fields that brought Wallace and Garner together: language, writing, English usage, scholarship, and friendship.
Wallace was the bestselling essayist and novelist whose books, especially Infinite Jest (1996) and Consider the Lobster (2005), won him acclaim as one of the greatest writers in recent decades. His review-essay on Garner’s Modern American Usage, the authoritative guide published by Oxford University Press, appeared originally in its abridged form as a cover article in Harper’s and then, unabridged, in Consider the Lobster. That 343-page book review brought the two writers together, and they corresponded for many years.
Garner’s preface breaks his five-year silence on the subject of his friendship with Wallace. Garner long debated what to do with the manuscript but ultimately settled on dividing the book royalties between Wallace’s parents and the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, where Wallace’s papers are archived.
Garner has posted a six-minute portion of his filmed interview with Wallace at www.lawprose.org.
RosePen Books is releasing both a paperback version of Quack This Way ($18.95) and a hardback version for ($24.95).
