He [Wallace] sent a quick note to his friend [Franzen] explaining his behavior. “the bold fact is that I’m a little afraid of you right now,”[…] “all I can tell you is that I may...

When David Markson wrote in June to complain about an author’s getting an award he though should have been his, Wallace gently warned him away from the pitfall of envy: “Mostly I try to remember...

Grammar, he saw, was agreement, community, consensus.