William Gaddis was well-known for being little known. He notoriously refused to give interviews or make public appearances. He declined to share the anecdotes of personal hardship now routinely expected of novelists; few details of his life became public. Gaddis wouldnt even allow a photograph of himself on his book jackets. In an age of […]

The story of a man’s life doesn’t end when he dies. Think of old Henry James, building a bonfire in his garden out of half a century’s worth of letters, notebooks, and manuscripts. A few weeks before, he had spent the weekend “wading through masses of ancient indecency” —Lord Byron’s unpublished correspondence. Fascinated by the