Collection Summary
Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin
Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company Collection of
David Foster Wallace
1987-2008
5 document boxes (2.1 linear feet) and 40 electronic files (3.2 MB)
The Little, Brown and Company
Collection of David Foster Wallace contains the files of Michael Pietsch, David
Foster Wallace's Little, Brown editor from Infinite
Jest (1996) to The Pale King (2011).
English
Manuscript Collection MS-5274
Acquisition:
Gift, 2012 (2012-03-008-G)
Access:
Open for research. To request access to electronic files,
please email Reference.
Restrictions on Use:
Certain restrictions apply to the use of electronic files. Researchers must agree to the
Materials Use Policy for Electronic Files before accessing them. Original computer disks and
forensic disk images are restricted. Copying electronic files, including screenshots and
printouts, is not permitted.
Processed by:
Stephen Cooper, 2012
Born digital materials processed, arranged, and described by Chance Adams and Brenna Edwards, 2015-2022.
Scope and Contents
The Little, Brown and Company Collection of David Foster Wallace contains the files
of Michael Pietsch, David Foster Wallace's Little, Brown editor from
Infinite Jest (1996) to The Pale
King (2011). The collection contains only a single, unmarked excerpt
from The Pale King however, with the majority of
these materials residing in the David Foster Wallace Papers at the Ransom Center.
Materials in the collection include personal and professional correspondence between
Wallace and Pietsch as well as between Pietsch and publishing staff; copy editing
files containing manuscript transmittal and design checklists, design proofs,
publicity photographs, style sheets, and other items related to book production and
promotion; many unmarked and slightly-marked drafts of Wallace pieces sent for
Pietsch's review; Pietsch's handwritten reading notes; a Little, Brown author's
questionnaire related to
Infinite Jest; and editing
stickies from drafts of various works.
The collection is organized in a single series: Series I. Little, Brown Files. The
materials remain grouped as they arrived at the Ransom Center, with the original
file names intact and only minor organizational changes made such as perfecting the
chronological arrangement of correspondence, for example.
A highlight of the collection is the correspondence of Wallace and Pietsch.
Beginning in late 1987, their letters document a growing friendship, mainly through
discussion of contemporary literature, and in 1992 the start of a strong
professional relationship after Bonnie Nadell sent a partial manuscript of
Infinite Jest to Pietsch. Their correspondence also
reveals Wallace's attention to detail through letters containing, for example, five
pages of explanatory notes and helpful design suggestions, a sixteen page response
in which he agrees to cut or change over 150 endnotes, and a six-point explanation
and defense for those copious endnotes. Overall the correspondence shows Wallace's
struggle both producing work and through the editing processes of cutting and
revising his writing. A letter also reveals that Pietsch kept no drafts of edited
manuscripts, explaining the reason for the mostly unmarked drafts in the collection
and the disjoined editing stickies.
Additional Wallace materials at the Ransom Center are located in the David Foster
Wallace Papers, the David Foster Wallace Collection, the Bonnie Nadell Collection of
David Foster Wallace, the Steven Moore Collection of David Foster Wallace, the Don
DeLillo Papers, and the James Linville
Paris Review
Collection.
Five 3.5" floppy disks are cataloged separately and housed with the Ransom Center
Electronic Records Collection.
Index Terms
Correspondents
Franzen, Jonathan
Howard, Gerald
Moore, Steven, 1951-
Morrow, Bradford
Nadell, Bonnie
Pietsch, Michael, 1957-
Powers, Richard
Richard, Mark
Wallace, David Foster
Subjects
American literature -- 20th century
Authors, American -- 20th century
Modernism (Literature) -- United
States
Document Types
Correspondence
Electronic documents.
Manuscripts
Container List
Series I. Little, Brown Files 1987-2008, undated
Before Infinite Jest
1.1
David Foster Wallace-Michael Pietsch correspondence, one
postcard note from Bonnie Nadell to Pietsch, with typescript copies
of Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young and Signifying
Rappers, 1987-1992, undated
1.2
Typescript photocopy of Little Expressionless Animals,
undated
Brief Interviews I
1.3
Typescript drafts of The Depressed Person, Think, Suicide as
a Kind of Piety, Death is Not the End, Yet Another Instance of the
Porousness of Certain Borders (XXI), and Nothing Ever Happened, with
minor corrections, undated
1.4
Pietsch letter to Wallace, with Pietsch reading notes, 1997,
undated
1.5
Wallace letter to Pietsch, with photocopied Brief Interview
Snippets, 1997
1.6
Wallace letters to Pietsch, with Post-Pietsch version
typescript draft of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men,
1998-1999
1.7
Adult World I & II typescripts, Esquire magazine containing
Adult World story, with photocopy of published The Depressed Person,
1998, undated
Brief Interviews II, Untitled Story Collection
1.8
Wallace, Nadell, and production/design staff letters to
Pietsch concerning design, foreign rights, and photographic rights,
with design proofs, publicity photos, and sales/castoff/final page
count estimate sheets, 1997-1999, undated
1.9
Wallace-Pietsch-Nadell correspondence, promotional copy
drafts, Wallace interview in LA Weekly, proof cover for paperback
edition, 1998-2000, undated
1.10
Reviews and interviews, 1999
Consider the Lobster, Untitled Essay Collection
1.11
Atlantic magazine containing Host, 2005
1203008G_003
Host, final text. 4 electronic files: Microsoft Word 1997-2003, February 2005
1203008G_001, 1203008G_002
Chapter drafts. 21 electronic files: Microsoft Word 1997-2003, December 2004
1.12
Wallace letters to Pietsch, book illustration inserts,
2002-2005
2.1
Marion Ettlinger's Wallace image proof printouts,
undated
2.2-2.4
Wallace-Pietsch-Nadell correspondence with early reading copy
drafts for Pietsch, some with Pietsch notes; photocopied published
essays; Wallace corrections and changes, 2004-2006,
undated
Copyediting Files
2.5-2.6
Wallace letters to Pietsch and Wallace-copyeditor
correspondence primarily related to Infinite Jest but also to A
Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Brief Interviews with
Hideous Men, Consider the Lobster, and Oblivion, with style sheets
and design checklists, 1995-2008, undated
Infinite Jest
2.7
Wallace-Pietsch correspondence, with other letters to
Pietsch; a Little, Brown author questionnaire; and Wallace-suggested
possible book cover images [see also correspondence in 3.3],
1992-1997, undated
2.8
Little, Brown foreign publication rights correspondence, with
photocopied reviews, 1994-1996, undated
3.1
Blurb and review correspondence, with one Pietsch letter to
Wallace; paperback publishing business including correspondence,
cover proofs, and promotional materials, 1992-2007,
undated
Infinite Jest Editorial
3.2-3.3
Wallace-Pietsch correspondence, with Pietsch reading notes
and suggested cuts/changes; Nadell letters to Pietsch and Wallace
with notes of suggested cuts/changes, 1992-1998
3.4
Pietsch reading notes and suggested cuts/changes, with
Wallace's handwritten responses, 1994-1995, undated
Oblivion
3.5
Wallace-Pietsch correspondence, with Pietsch reading notes;
Another Pioneer typescript draft; The Suffering Channel 2nd pass
pages; and publishing materials, 2001-2004, undated
3.6
Wallace letter to Pietsch, Marion Ettlinger publicity photo
with use agreement notes, review galley to-be-sent list with draft
of Pietsch letter to Dave Eggers, and Oblivion review misquote
article and related Pietsch letter, 2003-2004, undated
1203008G_004, 1203008G_005
Chapter drafts. 15 electronic files: Microsoft Word 1997-2003, June 2003
A Supposedly Fun Thing
3.7
Wallace-Pietsch correspondence, Nadell letter to Pietsch,
photocopy typescript drafts of How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart
(Book Review That Became Too Good For A Book Review and Is Being
Palmed Off As A Critical Essay), 1991-1997, undated
Unfoldered and Loose Material
4.1
Wallace letters to Pietsch with one note to Pietsch from B,
2001-2008, undated
4.2
Pale King typescript excerpt, undated
4.3
Typescript drafts, some edited, 1998-2003, undated: Call Me A
Snoot; Democracy and Commerce at the U.S. Open; E Unibus Pluram;
Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young; Getting Away From
Being Away From It All (Ticket to the Fair); Hail the Dragon, That
Returneth Clothed in New Fire; Hideous Showcase Thing; Tri-Stan: I
Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko
4.4
Printed works, with Wallace interview, 1991-2003,
undated
4.5
Unused Gustav Klimt card, 2000
5.1
Editing stickies from drafts of various works,
undated
Index of Correspondents
- Franzen, Jonathan--3.1
- Howard, Gerald--3.1
- Moore, Steven, 1951- --2.7, 3.1
- Morrow, Bradford--3.1
- Nadell, Bonnie--1.1, 1.8-9, 2.2, 3.1-3, 3.7
- Pietsch, Michael, 1957- --1.1, 1.4, 1.9, 2.2-4, 2.7-8, 3.1-7
- Powers, Richard--3.1
- Richard, Mark--3.1
- Wallace, David Foster--1.1, 1.5-6, 1.8-9, 1.12, 2.2-7, 3.2-3, 3.5-7, 4.1
Index of Works
- Brief Interviews with Hideous Men--1.5-10, 2.5
- Call Me a Snoot--4.3
- Consider the Lobster--1.11-2.4, 2.6, 5.1
- Death is Not the End--1.3
- Democracy and Commerce at the U.S. Open--4.3
- The Depressed Person--1.3
- E Unibus Pluram--4.3
- Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young--1.1, 4.3
- Getting Away From Being Away From It All--4.3
- Hail the Dragon, That Returneth Clothed in New Fire--4.3
- Hideous Showcase Thing--4.3
- How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart--2.5, 3.7
- Infinite Jest--2.5, 2.7-3.4
- Little Expressionless Animals--1.2
- Nothing Ever Happened--1.3
- Oblivion--2.6, 3.5-6, 5.1
- The Pale King--4.2
- Signifying Rappers--1.1
- The Suffering Channel--3.5
- Suicide as a Sort of Present--1.3
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again--2.5, 3.7
- Think--1.3
- Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko--4.3
- Yet Another Instance of the Porousness of Certain Borders--1.3