Back String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis

String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis

Introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan | More

“The greatest tennis writer ever.” — Touré, The New York Times Book Review

Overview
Table of Contents

Overview

News Game, set, match: Bill Gates names String Theory one of his five books of the year
December 12, 2016

Audio Listen: Esquire Classic explores the enduring strangeness, and brilliance, of David Foster Wallace’s “String Theory”
May 10, 2016

The Library of America presents an instant classic of American sportswriting—the tennis essays of David Foster Wallace, “the best mind of his generation” (A. O. Scott) and “the best tennis-writer of all time” (New York Times), in a deluxe hardcover collector’s edition.

Both a onetime “near-great junior tennis player” and a lifelong connoisseur of the finer points of the game, David Foster Wallace wrote about tennis with the authority of an insider, the style of a literary virtuoso, and the disarming admiration of an irrepressible fan. Including his masterful profiles of Roger Federer, Michael Joyce, and Tracy Austin, String Theory gathers all five of Wallace’s famous essays on tennis, pieces that have been hailed by sportswriters and literary critics alike as some of the greatest and most innovative magazine writing in recent memory. Whiting Award–winning writer John Jeremiah Sullivan provides an introduction.

John Jeremiah Sullivan is a writer for The New York Times Magazine and the Southern Editor of the Paris Review. A recipient of a Whiting Writers’ Award, two National Magazine Awards, and a Pushcart Prize, he is the author of Blood Horses: Notes of a Sportswriter’s Son and Pulphead: Essays, which The New York Times called “the best and most important collection of magazine writing since David Foster Wallace’s A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again.”

This special publication features a debossed cover, acid-free paper, and a unique design with specifications differing from those of Library of America series titles.
Table of Contents

Introduction by John Jeremiah Sullivan

Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley

How Tracy Austin Broke My Heart

Tennis Player Michael Joyce’s Professional Artistry as a Paradigm of Certain Stuff about Choice, Freedom, Limitation, Joy, Grotesquerie, and Human Completeness

Democracy and Commerce at the U.S. Open

Federer Both Flesh and Not

14.00 List Price: $19.95 (Save: 30%) Free shipping on orders $50 and over

Or buy from our partners

Phone orders: 1-800-964-5778 Request product #410151

ISBN: 9781598534801 154 pages

LOA books are distributed worldwide by Penguin Random House

Related Books

Football: Great Writing about the National Sport (paperback)

American Pastimes: The Very Best of Red Smith

Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu: John Updike on Ted Williams

The Top of His Game: The Best Sportswriting of W. C. Heinz (hardcover)

Library of America

CURATOR

A champion of America’s great writers and timeless works, Library of America guides readers in finding and exploring the exceptional writing that reflects the nation’s history and culture.

Learn More

PUBLISHER

From poetry, novels, and memoirs to journalism, crime writing, and science fiction, the more than 300 volumes published by Library of America are widely recognized as America’s literary canon.

Browse our books Subscribe

NON-PROFIT

With contributions from donors, Library of America preserves and celebrates a vital part of our cultural heritage for generations to come.

Support our mission

String Theory: David Foster Wallace on Tennis

Related Books

Get 10% off your first Library of America purchase.