TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE


PROMO FOR    "David Foster Wallace"
*When David Foster Wallace committed suicide in September of 2008, there
was a tsunami of grief. Readers, fellow writers and critics poured out
their grief in tributes and memories online and in print. The response
might have caught you by surprise if you weren't paying attention all
along. Wallace's hyper-intimate, cerebral writing style and his witty,
sincere persona helped make him a spokesperson for his generation. In
this hour of To the Best of Our Knowledge, the life and work of David
Foster Wallace.


PROGRAM RUNDOWN:   "David Foster Wallace"

0:00 - 15:47        SEGMENT 1: (15:48)
            Today we celebrate the life and work of writer David
            Foster Wallace starting with a tribute from Laura Miller,
            book critic at Salon.com.  Journalist DT Max tells Steve
            Paulson about Wallace's creative struggles with the novel
            he left unfinished when he committed suicide in September
            of 2008.  It's called "The Pale King" and explores
            Wallace's longtime preoccupation with boredom.  DT Max
            wrote "The Unfinished: David Foster Wallace Struggles to
            Surpass 'Infinite Jest'" for The New Yorker. Max is also
            the author of the book "The Family That Couldn't Sleep." 
            And we hear a brief excerpt from one of TTBOOK's
            interviews with David Foster Wallace, recorded in 2004.
            More is available at ttbook.org/davidfosterwallace.
                         
            Segment One Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

15:48 - 26:17  LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

26:18 - 34:43       SEGMENT 2: (18:26)
            Time Magazine's Book Critic, Lev Grossman, comments on
            "Infinite Jest," and we hear a section from another
            TTBOOK interview with David Foster Wallace about his
            great novel.  Also, David Lipsky, a contributing editor
            at Rolling Stone, spent a week with DFW in 1996. Later,
            Lipsky won a National Magazine Award for writing "The
            Lost Years and Last Days of David Foster Wallace."  He
            talks with Jim Fleming about the end of Wallace's life. 
            Lipsky is also the author of the book "Absolutely
            American."  And, Michael Pietsch was David Foster
            Wallace's editor since the early 90s.  He's currently
            editing Wallace's unfinished novel "The Pale King" -
            scheduled to hit bookstores in the summer of 2010. 
            Pietsch, executive vice-president and publisher at
            Little, Brown and Co., talks with Anne Strainchamps. Then
            we hear actress Carrie Coon reading a section of "The
            Pale King." 
                              
            Segment Two Outcue:  "...PRI - Public Radio
            International."

34:44 - 35:13       LOCAL OPTION with music bed (:29)

35:14 - 53:00       SEGMENT 3: (17:46)
            David Foster Wallace reads from his essay "A Supposedly
            Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again." More of that recording is
            on our web site at ttbook.org/davidfosterwallace.  Amy
            Wallace-Havens is David Foster Wallace's sister.  She
            talks with Anne Strainchamps about growing up with her
            brother and living without him now. Also, we hear an
            excerpt from the commencement speech David Foster Wallace
            gave at Kenyon College in 2005.  Th text is now published
            in book form as "This is Water."
                    
            Segment Three Outcue: PRI Audio Logo


For a copy of this hour, call 1-800-747-7444, and ask for "David Foster
Wallace."

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