The Howling Fantods

(New York, NY — September 14, 2010) Little, Brown and Company has released both the publication date and jacket artwork for the highly anticipated posthumous novel by David Foster Wallace. The Pale King will be published on April 15, 2011, Tax Day, with bookstores across the country hosting events on that date to celebrate the publication. The jacket art was created by Wallace’s widow, Karen Green, a painter and visual artist who often works in mixed media.

Set at an IRS tax-return-processing center in Illinois in the mid-1980s, The Pale King is the story of a crew of entry-level processors and their attempts to do their job in the face of soul-crushing tedium. “The Pale King may be the first novel to make accountants and IRS agents into heroes,” says Bonnie Nadell, Wallace’s longtime agent and literary executor. Michael Pietsch, Little, Brown’s publisher and The Pale King’s editor, says, “Wallace takes agonizing daily events like standing in lines, traffic jams, and horrific bus rides — things we all hate — and turns them into moments of laughter and understanding. Although David did not finish the novel, it is a surprisingly whole and satisfying reading experience that showcases his extraordinary imaginative talents and his mixing of comedy and deep sadness in scenes from daily life.” 

For the Tax Day events, Little, Brown plans to help bookstores link up with local writers to lead readings and discussions of The Pale King and to celebrate David Wallace. Any bookstore that would like to be a part of the publication date events should contact Marlena Bittner at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Little, Brown and Company is the publisher of many of David Foster Wallace’s books, including Infinite Jest, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, Consider the Lobster, Oblivion, This is Water, and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group. Founded in 1837, Little, Brown has long been recognized as a publisher committed to publishing fiction of the highest quality.