From The Library Of David Foster Wallace

This article originally appeared at Veritrope.com

DFW Annotated Copy of Don DeLillo's Players

Inside cover of David Foster Wallace's annotated copy of Don DeLillo's Players. Harry Ransom Center.

DAVID FOSTER WALLACE was working on a novel when he committed suicide in September 2008. Coinciding with its posthumous release as The Pale King, the University of Texas at Austin has opened its Archive of Writer David Foster
Wallace
— a special collection of his notes, manuscripts, and personal effects. Made up of 34 document boxes and 8 oversize folders, the collection has received as much attention for what it reveals about Wallace as a reader as for the window it provides into his creative process as a writer.

The Archive has about 300 books from Wallace’s personal library, many of them substantially annotated. I decided to make a complete list for myself by searching the special collection via the University’s online card catalog… and I thought other people might also be curious about what was on his bookshelf.

So for the convenience of bookworms everywhere, I am sharing it in the table below.1 There’s a really interesting blend of material and topics here so, if you’ve been looking for some good book recommendations, you should be set for a while!


TitleAuthor / Editor
Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short StoriesJames H. Pickering
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Interactive EditionX.J. Kennedy, Dana Gioia
Thinking in Writing: Rhetorical Patterns and Critical ResponseDonald McQuade, Robert Atwan
American Short Stories (7th Edition)Eugene Current-Garcia, Bert Hitchcock
Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and BroadcastingJ. Hoberman And Jeffrey Shandler
Safety of ObjectsA.M. Homes
Darconville's CatAlexander Theroux
Marxism: The Unity of Theory and Practice - A Critical Essay, Revised edition (Russian Research Centre Study)Alfred G. Meyer
Teaching What We Do: EssaysAmherst College Faculty
The Mystery of the Aleph: Mathematics, the Kabbalah, and the Search for InfinityAmir D. Aczel
The Natural Mind: An Investigation of Drugs and the Higher ConsciousnessAndrew Weil
What If? Writing Exercises for Fiction Writers (3rd Edition)Anne Bernays
Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of RealityAnthony De Mello
The Norton Reader: An Anthology of Expository ProseArthur M. Eastman
The Symbolist Movement in LiteratureArthur Symons ; With An Introduction By Richard Ellmann
Christie Malry's Own Double-EntryB.S. Johnson
The Principles of MathematicsBertrand Russell
The Problems of PhilosophyBertrand Russell
Recombinant do re mi: Frontiers of the rock era (Planet rock)Billy Bergman And Richard Horn
Writing Past Dark : Envy, Fear, Distraction and Other Dilemmas in the Writer's LifeBonnie Friedman
Trinity FieldsBradford Morrow
MARIJUANA Facts, Figures and Information for the 1980'sBrent Q. Hafen, Kathryn J. Frandsen
A Dictionary of Modern American UsageBryan A. Garner
Mathematical Fallacies and ParadoxesBryan Bunch
Myths to Live ByJoseph Campbell ; Foreword By Johnson E. Fairchild
Desperate Characters: A NovelPaula Fox ; With An Afterword By Irving Howe
CarrieStephen King
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Movie Tie-in Edition (rack) (Narnia)C.S. Lewis ; Illustrated By Pauline Baynes
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous IdeaCharles Seife
The Man Who Loved Children: A NovelChristina Stead ; Introduction By Randall Jarrell
The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing ExpectationsChristopher Lasch
Amazons: An Intimate Memoir By the First Women to Play in the National Hockey LeagueCleo Birdwell
Bodies Electric: A NovelColin Harrison
All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, Book 1)Cormac McCarthy
Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the WestCormac McCarthy
SuttreeCormac McCarthy
Anarcho-HinduCurtis White ; Photographs By Donald Stuefloten
The Puttermesser Papers: A NovelCynthia Ozick
A Tour of the CalculusDavid Berlinski
Rise of Computer StateDavid Burnham ; Foreword By Walter Cronkite
Going Down: A NovelDavid Markson
Springer's Progress: A NovelDavid Markson
Angels: A NovelDenis Johnson
The Name of the World: A NovelDenis Johnson
Nightwood (New Edition)Djuna Barnes ; [Introduction By T.S. Eliot]
The Body Artist: A NovelDon DeLillo
Americana (Contemporary American fiction)Don DeLillo
End ZoneDon DeLillo
Great Jones Street (Contemporary American Fiction)Don DeLillo
Libra (Contemporary American Fiction)Don DeLillo
Mao II: A NovelDon DeLillo
PlayersDon Delillo
Ratner's StarDon DeLillo
Running DogDon DeLillo
White Noise: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)Don DeLillo
The Psychology Of Everyday ThingsDonald A. Norman
The Golden Notebook: A Novel (P.S.)Doris Lessing
Briefing for a Descent Into Hell (Vintage International)Doris Lessing
Inside OutLarry Crabb
The Anchor Essay Annual: The Best of 1998Phillip Lopate
Introducing Don DeLilloFrank Lentricchia
The Sixties: Art, Politics, and Media of Our Most Explosive DecadeGerald Howard
Critical Theory Since PlatoHazard Adams
Classics of Modern FictionIrving Howe
The Cinema BookPam Cook
Best of The Prose Poem: An International JournalPeter Johnson
Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from the BafflerThomas Frank And Matt Weiland
Sacred Violence: A Reader's Companion to Cormac McCarthyWade Hall And Rick Wallach
Granta 19: More Dirt, The New American Fiction.Bill Buford
Phenomenology and the Crisis of Philosophy (Torchbooks)Edmund Husserl
The Triple ThinkersEdmund Wilson
The Constitution of the United States of America Analysis and Interpretation; Annotations of Cases Decided By the Supreme Court of the United States to June 30, 1952Edward S. Corwin
Borges: A LifeEdwin Williamson
The Sermon on the Mount: The Key to Success in Life and The Lord's prayer, an InterpretationEmmet Fox
In Our TimeErnest Hemingway
Shame & Guilt (Hindsfoot Foundation Series on Treatment and Recovery)Ernest Kurtz
The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Journey to WholenessErnest Kurtz And Katherine Ketcham
The Great GatsbyF. Scott Fitzgerald ; Preface And Notes By Matthew J. Bruccoli
The Complete StoriesFlannery O'Connor
AmerikaFranz Kafka
Entry in an Unknown HandFranz Wright
Taking the Quantum Leap: The New Physics for NonscientistsFred Alan Wolf
Instructor's manual for the Random House handbook, fourth editionFrederick Crews, Ann Jessie Van Sant
The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern MysticismFritjof Capra
Metalogic: An Introduction to the Metatheory of Standard First Order LogicGeoffrey Hunter
The Mill on the flossGeorge Eliot ; With An Afterword By Morton Berman
Life After Television (Revised)George Gilder ; [Illustrations By Kurt Vargo]
Erotic Communications: Studies in Sex, Sin, and CensorshipGeorge N. Gordon
ImpostersGeorge V. Higgins
Woody AllenGiannalberto Bendazzi
Journey into MadnessGordon Thomas
Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural ObsessionGreil Marcus
Morte D'Author: An Autopsy (Arts and Their Philosophies)H.L. Hix
When Bad Things Happen to Good PeopleHarold S. Kushner
Insect Biology: A Textbook of EntomologyHoward E. Evans
The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom TraditionsHuston Smith
The Philosophy of Rhetoric (Galaxy Books Series Gb P)I.A. Richards
The Long Loneliness: The Autobiography of the Legendary Catholic Social ActivistDorothy Day
What We Should Have Known: Two Discussions (N+1 Research Branch Pamphlet)Ilya Bernstein
Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals and What is Enlightenment?Immanuel Kant ; Lewis White Beck
The Ultimate Rip-Off : A Taxing TaleIris Weil Collett
Ethics : Inventing Right and Wrong
J. L. Mackie
War FeverJ.G. Ballard
Crash: A NovelJ.G. Ballard, With An Introduction By The Author
Disgrace: A NovelJ.M. Coetzee
In the Heart of the Country: A NovelJ.M. Coetzee
Waiting for the BarbariansJ.M. Coetzee
Money and the Meaning of LifeJacob Needleman
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin
Giovanni's RoomJames Baldwin
The Last Good KissJames Crumley
The Big NowhereJames Ellroy
The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts)James Hollis
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young ManJames Joyce
The Hunters: A NovelJames Salter
MooJane Smiley
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft Janet Burroway
Wolf: A False MemoirJim Harrison
Saving DaylightJim Harrison
WarlockJim Harrison
Play It As It Lays: A NovelJoan Didion
Lost in the Funhouse: Fiction for Print, Tape, Live VoiceJohn Barth
The End of the RoadJohn Barth
Bradshaw on the Family: A Revolutionary Way of Self DiscoveryJohn Bradshaw
An Adult Child's Guide to What's 'Normal'John C. Friel, Linda D. Friel
Rhetoric: A User's GuideJohn D. Ramage
Keys to MathematicsJohn E. Maxfield And Margaret W. Maxfield
On Moral FictionJohn Gardner
The World According to Garp: A NovelJohn Irving
Crossing & Cruising: From the Golden Era of Ocean Liners to the Luxury Cruise Ships of TodayJohn Maxtone-Graham
Levels of the GameJohn McPhee
Writing with Style: Conversations on the Art of Writing John R. Trimble
Nobrow : The Culture of Marketing, the Marketing of CultureJohn Seabrook
Notes on Blood Meridian (Southwestern Writers Collection)John Sepich
Stories of FaithJohn Shea
Marry Me: A RomanceJohn Updike
Of the FarmJohn Updike
Poorhouse FairJohn Updike
Rabbit, RunJohn Updike
Toward the End of TimeJohn Updike
Strong Motion: A NovelJonathan Franzen
The Hero with a Thousand FacesJoseph Campbell
Heart of Darkness: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism (Norton Critical Editions)Joseph Conrad
The Secret Agent; A Simple TaleJoseph Conrad
Dostoevsky: The Miraculous Years, 1865-1871Joseph Frank
Dostoevsky: The Seeds of Revolt, 1821-1849Joseph Frank
Dostoevsky: The Stir of Liberation, 1860-1865Joseph Frank
Dostoevsky: The Years of Ordeal, 1850-1859Joseph Frank
Something HappenedJoseph Heller
Georg CantorJoseph Warren Dauben
Nonverbal Communications: The Unspoken DialogueJudee K. Burgoon, David B. Buller
PU-239 and Other Russian FantasiesKen Kalfus
Story First: The Writer As InsiderKit Reed
Live from EarthLance Olsen
Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, And Why. True Stories of Miraculous Endurance And Sudden Death, Library EditionLaurence Gonzales
What Is Art?Leo N. Tolstoy ; Translated From The Russian Original By Alymer Maude ; With An Introduction By Vincent Tomas
Uses of InfinityLeo Zippin
The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of PropertyLewis Hyde
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and SocietyDave Grossman
Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of AddictionLinda Schierse Leonard
About SchmidtLouis Begley
The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse: A NovelLouise Erdrich
The Road Less TraveledM. Scott Peck
Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary AmericansMalachi Martin
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without ThinkingMalcolm Gladwell
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big DifferenceMalcolm Gladwell
Introduction to Computer Data ProcessingMargaret S. Wu
Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race in the Urban PresentMark Costello And David Foster Wallace
Et Tu, BabeMark Leyner
My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist: A novelMark Leyner
The Adventures of Huckleberry FinnMark Twain
Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical EffectsMartha Kolln
SuccessMartin Amis
The Universal Computer: The Road from Leibniz to TuringMartin Davis
The Colossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles, Paradoxes, and ProblemsMartin Gardner
Where Are the Children?Mary Higgins Clark
Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human FormMatthea Harvey
The U.S. Income Tax: What It Is, How It Got That Way, and Where We Go From HereMichael J. Graetz
A Place Of Sense: Essays in Search of the Midwest (Bur Oak Book)Michael Martone
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal ExperienceMihaly Csikszentmihalyi
After Math Miriam Webster
Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the WestMorris Berman
Mathematical Thought from Ancient to Modern Times, Vol. 1Morris Kline
How to Write PoetryNancy Bogen
Infini et inconscient: Essai sur Georg Cantor (Collection "Psychanalyse") (French Edition)Nathalie Charraud
The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free PlayNeil A. Fiore
Room TemperatureNicholson Baker
TrinitiesNick Tosches
The Naked and the DeadNorman Mailer
Blindness and Insight: Essays in the Rhetoric of Contemporary CriticismPaul De Man
Desperate Characters: A NovelPaula Fox ; Introduction By Jonathan Franzen
Seeing Is Believing: How Hollywood Taught Us to Stop Worrying and Love the FiftiesPeter Biskind
The Melodramatic Imagination: Balzac, Henry James, Melodrama, and the Mode of ExcessPeter Brooks
BlissPeter Carey
Elements of Acoustic PhoneticsPeter Ladefoged
Recovering from a broken heart: A companion guide for the journey from suffering to joyful awarenessPhilip Golabuk
The Whitsun Weddings: PoemsPhilip Larkin
High WindowsPhilip Larkin
Three Case HistoriesPhilip Rieff
Anti-Story: An Anthology of Experimental FictionPhilip Stevick
The American Short Story 1900-1945: A Critical HistoryPhilip Stevick, editor
Generation of VipersPhilip Wylie
Virtues and Vices: And Other Essays in Moral PhilosophyPhilippa Foot
The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness (Pelican)R.D. Laing
ParadoxesR.M. Sainsbury
Poetry and the AgeRandall Jarrell
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love: StoriesRaymond Carver
SpeedboatRenata Adler
Essays in the theory of numbers, 1. Continuity of irrational numbers, 2. The nature and meaning of numbersRichard Dedekind ; Authorized Translation By Wooster Woodruff Beman
Rock SpringsRichard Ford
Operation Wandering SoulRichard Powers
Gain: A NovelRichard Powers
Galatea 2.2: A NovelRichard Powers
Everything Belongs: The Gift of Contemplative PrayerRichard Rohr
Alienation Richard Schacht ; With An Introductory Essay By Walter Kaufmann
Revolutionary RoadRichard Yates
The Diviners: A NovelRick Moody
Bear and His DaughterRobert Stone
Dog Soldiers, A NovelRobert Stone
A Flag for SunriseRobert Stone
Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite (Princeton Science Library)Rudy Rucker
Practically Painless English (2nd Edition)Sally Foster Wallace

Bill W. and Dr. BobSamual Shem And Janet Surrey
Muscle: Confessions of an Unlikely BodybuilderSamuel Wilson Fussell
Seize the DaySaul Bellow ; [Introduction By Alfred Kazin]
The Best American Short Stories 1990Selected From U.S. And Canadian Magazines By Richard Ford With Shannon Ravenel ; With An Introduction By Richard Ford
Satan SaysSharon Olds
Understanding the InfiniteShaughan Lavine
Unbridled Power: Inside the Secret Culture of the IRSShelley L. Davis
Winesburg, OhioSherwood Anderson ; Introduction By Malcolm Cowley
Three Case HistoriesSigmund Freud ; With An Introduction By The Editor, Philip Rieff.
The Man in the Gray Flannel SuitSloan Wilson
In Quest of the Ordinary: Lines of Skepticism and RomanticismStanley Cavell
Pursuits of Happiness: The Hollywood Comedy of RemarriageStanley Cavell
The Red Badge of Courage: An Episode of the American Civil WarStephen Crane
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of EverythingSteven D. Levitt And Stephen J. Dubner
Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American ManSusan Faludi
Against Interpretation: And Other EssaysSusan Sontag
A Beautiful Mind: The Life of Mathematical Genius and Nobel Laureate John NashSylvia Nasar

Compassion and Self Hate: An Alternative to DespairTheodore I. Rubin
Hannibal Rising, A NovelThomas Harris
Black SundayThomas Harris
HannibalThomas Harris
The Silence of the LambsThomas Harris
Something to Be DesiredThomas McGuane
Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive UnconsciousTimothy D. Wilson
Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central AsiaTom Bissell
The Black Brook Tom Drury
In the Loop: Don DeLillo and the Systems NovelTom Leclair
The Bonfire of the VanitiesTom Wolfe
The Bluest EyeToni Morrison
What Narcissism Means to Me: PoemsTony Hoagland
Quirky Qwerty: The Story of the Keyboard @ Your FingertipsTorbjörn Lundmark
MolloyTranslated From The French By Patrick Bowle
On Writer's BlockVictoria Nelson
The MoviegoerWalker Percy
Animal Portraits Walter Schels ; Preface By Dennis C. Turner
Beyond Success and Failure: Ways to Self-Reliance and MaturityWillard And Marguerite Beecher
A Reader's Companion to Infinite Jest William Dowling And Robert Bell
Pattern RecognitionWilliam Gibson
Habitations of the Word: EssaysWilliam H. Gass
Omensetter's Luck; a NovelWilliam H. Gass
In the Heart of the Heart of the Country & Other StoriesWilliam H. Gass With A Revised And Expanded Preface
West Federal Taxation 2008: Individual Income Taxes, Professional Version (West Federal Taxation Individual Income Taxes)William H. Hoffman, Jr.
The Anatomy of DisgustWilliam Ian Miller
Ironweed: A novelWilliam Kennedy
The Reluctant TaxpayerWilliam L. Raby And Carl Riblet, Jr
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English LanguageWilliam Morris, Editor
Instructor's Manual to accompany LiteratureX.J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy
The LoverMarguerite Duras
Change Your Mind: A practical guide to Buddhist meditationParamananda
Ywain : The Knight of the LionTranslated by Robert W. Ackerman, Frederick W. Locke, and Carleton W. Carroll.
Of Love and Other DemonsGabriel García Márquez ; translation from the Spanish by Edith Grossman.
The Drama of the Gifted Child: The Search for the True SelfAlice Miller ; translated from the German by Ruth Ward.
Goethe's Faust: Six EssaysGoethe / translated by Barker Fairley.
Gargantua and PantagruelFrançois Rabelais ; translated and with an introduction by J.M. Cohen
Sir Gawain and the Green KnightTranslated, and with an introduction, by Burton Raffel ; afterword by Neil D. Isaacs
Laura's SkinJ.F. Federspiel ; translated from the German by Breon Mitchell.
The Sailor Who Fell From Grace with the SeaYukio Mishima ; translated from the Japanese by John Nathan
Barbed Wire: A Political HistoryOlivier Razac ; translated from the French by Jonathan Kneight
The IdiotFyodor Dostoevsky ; a new rendition by Anna Brailovsky, based on the Constance Garnett translation ; introduction by Joseph Frank
The IdiotFyodor Dostoyevsky ; translated with an introduction by David Magarshack
The ImmoralistAndré Gide ; a new translation by Richard Howard
Critique of Pure ReasonImmanuel Kant ; translated by Norman Kemp Smith.
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size (Penguin Press Science)Tor Nørretranders ; [translated by Jonathan Sydenham]
Philosophical Investigations, The English Text of the Third EditionLudwig Wittgenstein ; translated by G.E.M. Anscombe
Selected PoemsBertolt Brecht ; translation and introduction by H.R. Hays.
Quo VadisHenryk Sienkiewicz ; in modern translation by W.S. Kuniczak.
Scarlet and Black: A Chronicle of the Nineteenth Century Stendhal ; translated and with an introduction by Margaret R.B. Shaw.
LabyrinthsBorges, Jorge Luis / Edited by Donald A. Yates & James E. Irby ; Preface by André Maurois.
Franz Kafka: The Complete StoriesFranz Kafka ; edited by Nahum N. Glatzer ; with a new foreword by John Updike
I'm Not StillerMax Frisch ; translated from the German by Michael Bullock.
Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical ObsessionApostolos Doxiadis
All Fires the Fire & Other StoriesJulio Cortázar ; translated from the Spanish by Suzanne Jill Levine
Three Trapped TigersG. Cabrera Infante ; translated by Donald Gardner, Suzanne Jill Levine
Pafko at the Wall: A NovellaDon DeLillo
The Following StoryCees Nooteboom ; translated from the Dutch by Ina Rilke.
The Insanity of Normality: Realism As Sickness : Toward Understanding Human DestructivenessArno Gruen ; translated from the German by Hildegarde and Hunter Hannum
The Wild NumbersPhilibert Schogt
Flannery O'Connor : Collected WorksFlannery O'Connor
The Diary of a Madman, The Government Inspector, and Selected StoriesGogol ; translated with an introduction by Ronald Wilks
The Joke (Definitive Version)Milan Kundera

  1. I did my best to make the corresponding Amazon links point to the correct translation / edition of the work in question. []

One Response to “From The Library Of David Foster Wallace”

  1. Paul Bergly January 17, 2013 at 10:00 pm #

    Very interesting! Thank you for compiling this list. I love the diversity. Seeing the cruise book made me recall his “Cruise” article and it made me smile.