60 Great Books - 55 - Bauman Rare Books “In Friendship, So Long As You KEEPYOURHANDSOFFMYSPOUSE”: First Edition Of Infinite Jest, Humorously Inscribed By David Foster Wallace 53. WALLACE, David Foster. Infinite Jest. Boston, 1996. Thick octavo, original blue paper boards, dust jacket. $3900. First edition of Wallace’s epic postmodern satire, inscribed in the year of publication with his printed name crossed over: “For Ralph—In friendship, so long as you KEEPYOURHANDSOFFMYSPOUSE. David Foster Wallace,” with an original sketch of a frowning face, in scarce first-issue dust jacket. The “buzzing, claustrophobic energy” of Wallace’s “mammoth 1079-page satire of America” immediately placed him in the company of Pynchon and DeLillo (Wall Street Journal). Here, as in all his work, “Wallace’s achievement was to make thinking about the effects of postmodern life, and thinking about thinking about them, one of the keenest pleasures of being alive” (Slate). One year after publication of this acclaimed novel, a work hailed as “jubilantly anecdotal, windingly sardonic and self-consciously literary… Wallace received a MacArthur Foundation grant, the so-called genius award” (New York Times). He died tragically in 2008 at age 46. First-issue dust jacket, with uncorrected “Vollman” on rear panel. A fine inscribed copy.
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