RIP David Foster Wallace, one of the few writers around who still knew how to fill 12,000 words in a magazine, and do it beautifully; he also did more for footnotes than anyone since Charles Kinbote. (See how the Atlantic Monthly designed around them here.)
The steady decline in long articles in print comes in the main from the rise of the internet, short attention spans and increased time pressures; but it also comes from a dearth of great writers who know how to fill so much space meaningfully. And now there’s one less of those.
Right now, McSweeney’s homepage is dedicated to people remembering DFW (including editors from Esquire and the New York Times magazine). With the pound strong and nothing to lose, I tried once to commission him. I had to write him a letter – this was in 2005, and his agent had told me he had no cellphone number for him, nor did DFW have email. I wrote the letter, but never received a reply.
I can still never watch Roger Federer without remembering this piece, nor hear talk radio or eat lobster in the same way again. Which is what great magazine journalism should do – glorify in the space that newspapers don’t have, look in-depth, take time, describe, change people’s worlds. Bonus link: his brilliant, short summary of what 9/11 should mean.
Set aside an hour or so, click those links, and enjoy some truly engaging and stylish magazine journalism by a writer who is already sorely missed.
UPDATE: Harper’s now has a page with all his articles on it.
