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D. T. Max first contributed to the New Yorker in 1997 and has been a staff writer since 2010. He is the author of “The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery,” a cultural and scientific study of fatal familial insomnia disease; “Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace,” and the topic of our conversation, “Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim.” He has been the books editor of the New York Observer, a writer for the Times Magazine, and a pseudonymous food reviewer for Paper. He contributed the afterword to the New York Review Books Classics reissue of William McPherson's 1984 novel, “Testing the Current.”
In today's flashback, an outtake from Episode 107, my conversation with D.T. Max, New Yorker staff writer and author of Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace, which was published by Viking in 2012. Max's other books include The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery and Finale: Late Conversations with Stephen Sondheim. Air date: September 22, 2012 *** Otherppl with Brad Listi is a weekly literary podcast featuring in-depth interviews with today's leading writers. Available where podcasts are available: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, etc. Subscribe to Brad Listi's email newsletter. Support the show on Patreon Merch @otherppl Instagram YouTube TikTok Email the show: letters [at] otherppl [dot] com The podcast is a proud affiliate partner of Bookshop, working to support local, independent bookstores. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for July 26, 2020 is: epistolary ih-PIST-uh-lair-ee adjective 1 : of, relating to, or suitable to a letter 2 : contained in or carried on by letters 3 : written in the form of a series of letters Examples: "Jonathan Franzen, with whom he had struck up an epistolary friendship, offered to get together that April when he was in Boston." — D. T. Max, Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace, 2012 "It is an epistolary novel, but spare, as opposed to an 18th-century novel like Clarissa, in which female characters write twice a day. Very few letters are exchanged between the friends; sometimes years pass in between." — Don Noble, The Tuscaloosa (Alabama) News, 2 May 2020 Did you know? Epistolary was formed from the noun epistle, which refers to a composition written in the form of a letter to a particular person or group. In its original sense, epistle refers to one of the 21 letters (such as those from the apostle Paul) found in the New Testament. Epistle came to English in the 13th century, via Anglo-French and Latin, from the Greek noun epistolē, meaning "message" or "letter." Epistolē, in turn, came from the verb epistellein, meaning "to send to" or "to send from." Epistolary appeared in English four centuries after epistle and can be used to describe something related to or contained in a letter (as in "epistolary greetings") or composed of letters (as in "an epistolary novel").
Michelle Dean is a journalist and critic. Her new book is Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion. “There isn’t one answer. I wish there was one answer. The answer is: You just have to wing it. And I’m learning that — I’m learning to be okay with the winging it. ... I guess the lesson to me of what went on with a lot of women in the book is: You have to be comfortable with the fact that some days are going to be good, and some days are going to not be good.” Thanks to MailChimp for sponsoring this week's episode. @michelledean michelledean.tumblr.com Dean on Longform [00:45] Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion (Grove Press • 2018) [01:35] "Dee Dee Wanted Her Daughter To Be Sick, Gypsy Wanted Her Mom To Be Murdered" (Buzzfeed • Aug 2016) [08:10] annefriedman.com [08:50] "The Daily Show's Woman Problem" (Irin Carmon • Jezebel • June 2010) [09:20] "Someone Got 'The Daily Show' in My Jezebel and Together They Taste A Little Weird" (The Awl • July 2010) [15:20] "Waterworld Review" (KillerMovies • July 1995) [20:25] Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (D. T. Max • Penguin Books • 2013) [20:35] "A Supposedly True Thing Jonathan Franzen Said About David Foster Wallace" (The Awl • Oct 2011) [26:25] "The Perils of Pauline" (Renata Adler • The New York Review of Books • Aug 1980) [28:30] "How Unauthorized Is the New Book About Harper Lee?" (Gawker • July 2014) [31:05] Dean’s Archive on The Guardian [30:20] How Should A Person Be (Sheila Heti • Picador • 2013) [35:30] "True Lives" (James Wood • The New Yorker • June 2012) [35:40] "Listening to Women" (Slate • June 2012) [40:30] Longform Podcast #156: Renatta Adler [51:05] Mommy Dead and Dearest (Erin Lee Carr • 2017) [51:15] Longform Podcast #248: Erin Lee Carr [64:00] Gerard Manley Hopkins
Evan Wright, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is the author of Generation Kill. "When people were killed, civilians especially, I realized I was the only person there who would write it down. I was frantic about getting names, and in the book there are a few Arabic names, some of the victims. Not that anyone cares. But I thought, 'At least somewhere there's a record of this.'" Thanks to our sponsor, TinyLetter. Show notes: @evanscribe Wright on Longform [3:45] Generation Kill (2004) [10:00] "Scenes From My Life in Porn" (L.A. Weekly • Mar 2000) [12:15] A.J. Liebling’s New Yorker archive [14:15] "Big Red Son" (David Foster Wallace • Consider the Lobster • 1998) [pdf] [16:30] Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (D.T. Max • 2012) [18:15] Hella Nation: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe,Wingnut's War Against the Gap, and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America (2009) [28:00] "The Killer Elite" (Rolling Stone • Jul 2003) [30:30] Longform Podcast #64: Gay Talese [33:30] Wikipedia: Christopher Isherwhood [39:30] Karl Taro Greenfield on Longform [48:30] "Pat Dollard's War on Hollywood" (Vanity Fair • Mar 2007) [57:00] American Desperado: My Life—From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset (with Jon Roberts • 2011) [1:00:00] How to Get Away with Murder in America: Drug Lords, Dirty Pols, Obsessed Cops, and the Quiet Man Who Became the CIA's Master Killer (Kindle Single • 2012)
D.T. Max appears at the 2013 Library of Congress National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: New Yorker writer D.T. Max has penned the first major biography of David Foster Wallace, whom many consider to be one of the greatest writers of his generation. In "Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace," Max traces Wallace's life from his boyhood in Illinois until his death by suicide in 2008. Wallace is best known for his 1996 novel, "Infinite Jest." "The Pale King" was Wallace's final novel, published posthumously in 2011. Max is also the author of "The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery," about strange neurological illnesses that always result in death.
Evan Wright, a two-time National Magazine Award winner, is the author of Generation Kill. "When people were killed, civilians especially, I realized I was the only person there who would write it down. I was frantic about getting names, and in the book there are a few Arabic names, some of the victims. Not that anyone cares. But I thought, 'At least somewhere there's a record of this.'" Thanks to this week’s sponsors: TinyLetter and HostGator. Show notes: @evanscribe Wright on Longform [3:45] Generation Kill (2004) [10:00] "Scenes From My Life in Porn" (L.A. Weekly • Mar 2000) [12:15] A.J. Liebling’s New Yorker archive [14:15] "Big Red Son" (David Foster Wallace • Consider the Lobster • 1998) [pdf] [16:30] Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (D.T. Max • 2012) [18:15] Hella Nation: Looking for Happy Meals in Kandahar, Rocking the Side Pipe,Wingnut's War Against the Gap, and Other Adventures with the Totally Lost Tribes of America (2009) [28:00] "The Killer Elite" (Rolling Stone • Jul 2003) [30:30] Longform Podcast #64: Gay Talese [33:30] Wikipedia: Christopher Isherwhood [39:30] Karl Taro Greenfield on Longform [48:30] "Pat Dollard's War on Hollywood" (Vanity Fair • Mar 2007) [57:00] American Desperado: My Life—From Mafia Soldier to Cocaine Cowboy to Secret Government Asset (with Jon Roberts • 2011) [1:00:00] How to Get Away with Murder in America: Drug Lords, Dirty Pols, Obsessed Cops, and the Quiet Man Who Became the CIA's Master Killer (Kindle Single • 2012)
Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace (Viking Books) D.T. Max, a New Yorker staff writer and author of The Family That Couldn't Sleep, will discuss his highly anticipated biography of David Foster Wallace. "This book is vey well-researched, deeply sympathetic, and incredibly painful to read. We should feel grateful that this story was told by someone as talented and responsible as D.T. Max." —Dave Eggers "This book should be handed to anyone who wants to write, if only to remind the aspiring writer that becoming a voice of generational significance turns out to be very poor insulation indeed from struggle, fear, and despair. D. T. Max is beautifully attuned to Wallace's strengths, whether personal or literary, and bracingly clear-sighted on his flaws. The result is a book that's moving, surprising (Wallace voted for Reagan?), and hugely disquieting. If you love Wallace's work, you obviously need to read this book; if you don't love Wallace's work, you especially need to read this book." —Tom Bissell D.T. Max is currently a staff writer for The New Yorker and has worked as a journalist and editor at publications ranging from The New York Observer to Elle. He is the author of The Family That Couldn't Sleep: A Medical Mystery. Max's long essay on David Foster Wallace, "The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace's struggle to Surpass Infinite Jest," was published in the March 9, 2009 issue of The New Yorker to wide acclaim. He is a graduate of Harvard University and lives outside of New York City with his wife and two young children. Photo of the author by Flash Rosenberg. Copies of his book can be purchased here: http://tinyurl.com/c6h5o49 THIS EVENT WAS RECORDED LIVE AT SKYLIGHT BOOKS SEPTEMBER 19, 2012.
D.T. Max on his biography: 'Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace'.
Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace