Melville House Books

An Associated Press wire story on last month’s memorium to David Foster Wallace held by friends and colleagues is updated in The Guardian. It notes “One of the evening’s most powerful moments came when the novelist Donald Antrim told of receiving a telephone call a few years ago, when he himself was suffering from suicidal depression. ‘It was Dave, to whom I had never spoken before in any significant way,’ Antrim recalled. ‘…. He told me not to be afraid.’” Apparently, as with every single one of the innumerable other tributes to Wallace in the media, none of the speakers mentioned the breathtaking cruelty of Wallace’s act towards his wife, who thanks to his devising was left to find the body.

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.