Tony Li

 

Searching through a list of interviews, the start of the conversation of David Markson grabbed my attention. He uses his old time story to describes how did him become a writer, such as wrote letters to famous author,Malcolm Lowry, and his critical study about “Under the Volcano”. At the beginning, he was just working with other authors, and sometimes helped them publish some books, such as “ The Recognition”. In the interview, he used his critical sentences to describe books published some author who published book in a short time period as unnecessary books.

David Merrill Markson, he was an american postmodern author. He born in Albany ,New York, in 1927. His book usually have unconventional lines to design the plot or describe a character. His book contain massive of things just like assemblage for the readers.  His early works contain styles from William Faulkner and Malcolm Lowry. These two authors were mentioned in his interview, who he approved that they gave him some inspirations. He was not productive like some other authors, but every book he wrote is a classical work.

If I am an interviewer to have a conversation with him, I would ask two questions. When you wrote the Reader’s Block, was the author in that book as a reflection of yourself? How did you choose that 44 figures in the book “Wittgenstein’s Mistress”, and how to connect these figures?

He had fantastic postmodern novel in his lifetime. His works are listed below.

The list of his work

  • Epitaph for a Tramp Dell, 1959.
  • Epitaph for a Dead Beat Dell, 1961.
  • The Ballad of Dingus Magee; Being the Immortal True Saga of the Most Notorious and Desperate Bad Man of the Olden Days, His Blood-Shedding, His Ruination of Poor Helpless Females, & Cetera Bobbs-Merrill, 1965.
  • Miss Doll, Go Home Dell, 1965.
  • Going Down Holt Rinehart Winston, 1970.
  • Springer’s Progress Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1977.
  • Malcolm Lowry’s Volcano: Myth, Symbol, Meaning Times Books, 1978.
  • Wittgenstein’s Mistress Dalkey Archive, 1988.
  • Collected Poems Dalkey Archive Press, 1993.
  • Reader’s Block Dalkey Archive Press, 1996.[19]
  • This Is Not a Novel Counterpoint, 2001.
  • Vanishing Point Shoemaker & Hoard, 2004.
  • The Last Novel Shoemaker & Hoard, 2007.[20]

Website #1

Title: David Markson

Format: Biography, List of works, and picture included

Author: Many authors, February 7, 2017

Rating: 8 out of 10

Sourcing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Markson#Works

  • The website give a comprehensive introduction of David Markson. It listed all the works he had down, and his background stories. It provides lots of essay links about this author.

Website #2

Title: A Passionate Reader: On David Markson

Format: Biography, and comments

Author: Joanna Scott, October 13, 2010

Rating: 9 out of 10

Sourcing: https://www.thenation.com/article/passionate-reader-david-markson/

  • This website describes the author’s life time stories. This is an article to commemorate him as a great writer. The author of this article praised Markson. He described small details in Markson’s lives, and his marriage.