The Harry Ransom Center, home to all things David Foster Wallace, has announced that a number of drafts and other materials relating to Wallace’s posthumous novel, The Pale King , are now available to the public for research. Until recently, they had been held by Little, Brown and Co., and only returned to the Center after the novel’s paperback publication. According to HRC:
“The Pale King materials fill six boxes and include handwritten and typescript drafts, outlines, characters lists, research materials and a set of notebooks containing reading notes, names, snippets of dialog, definitions, quotations and clippings,” they explain. “The materials have been organized according to a spreadsheet developed by Wallace’s editor, Michael Pietsch. Pietsch, then-executive vice president and publisher of Little, Brown and Co., spent months reading through and organizing the material and found what he called ‘an astonishingly full novel, created with the superabundant originality and humor that were uniquely David’s.'”
Click through to get a closer look at one of the images now available online thanks to the David Foster Wallace Literary Trust, and then head to the Harry Ransom Center’s website for more from Wallace’s workbook — but if you’re a huge fan, now might be the time to plan a trip to Texas!
Inside front cover of notebook labeled “David Wallace Reward for Return” for The Pale King; contains reading notes, clippings, and writings related to The Pale King. © David Foster Wallace Literary Trust.
[via Mediabistro]