David Foster Wallace’s Editor on ‘The Pale King’

The Takeaway

When David Foster Wallace took his own life in September of 2008, he left behind reams of unfinished work and a veritable young generation of readers still hungry for his work.  This week, posthumous novel “The Pale King” is released from Wallace’s long time publisher Little Brown. The book is unfinished, but was assembled from DFW’s raggedy genius by longtime editor Michael Pietsch.  Peitsch talks about how emotional it is for an editor to bring a book into the world when it’s author is gone. The long time executive editor and publisher at Little Brown has worked with many authors including Alice Sebold, David Sedaris, Keith Richards as well as David Foster Wallace.

Sign up for our daily newsletter

Sign up for The Top of the World, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.