David Foster Wallace was a Poet Before He Wrote Fiction

Over at Fiction Circus, Miracle Jones has posted what was probably one of David Foster Wallace’s first pieces of writing–written in grade school. Jones copied the poem down from the lobby of the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. The Ransom Center acquired the Wallace archive last month, unsurprisingly.

Wallace wrote the poem when he was six or seven years old. He even signed his full name, a habit he didn’t formally adopt until a few years into his professional writing career. Here’s an excerpt: “Vikings oho they were so strong, / Though there warriors won’t live so long.”

David Lipsky’s book about Wallace, Although Of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace, comes out next Tuesday. DT Max, the New Yorker writer who penned the long profile of Wallace in March 2009, is also working on a biography.