Wallace annotated many of the books heavily: he underlined passages, made extensive comments in the margins, and utilized the front and back inside covers for notes, vocabulary lists, brainstorms, and more. As a reader of Infinite Jest, one book in particular caught my eye: a battered paperback copy of Pam Cook’s edited volume The Cinema Book (New York: Pantheon, 1985). This reference work is heavily used: it lacks both its front and back cover, its spine is held on with two pieces of tape, and the exposed inside cover is inscribed “D. Wallace ’92,” four years before the publication of Infinite Jest.
Infinite Possibilities: A first glimpse into David Foster Wallace’s library | Cultural Compass
DFW’s full manuscript archive and personal library arrived at the Ransom Center at UT Austin. After spending last summer diving head first into Infinite Jest for the first time, I suddenly have a greater understanding of his singular drive in absorbing and constructing the written word.
Source: utexas.edu
