David Markson

Author profile

born

December 20, 1927 in Albany, New York, The United States

died

June 04, 2010

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Poetry, Nonfiction

About this author

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David Markson was an American novelist, born David Merrill Markson in Albany, New York. He is the author of several postmodern novels, including This is Not a Novel, Springer's Progress, and Wittgenstein's Mistress. His most recent work, The Last Novel, was published in 2007 and received a positive review in the New York Times, which called it "a real tour de force."

Markson's work is characterized by an unconventional approach to narration and plot. While his early works may draw on the modernist tradition of William Faulkner and Malcolm Lowry, Markson says his later novels are "literally crammed with literary and artistic anecdotes" and "nonlinear, discontinuous, collage-like, an assemblage."

Dalkey Archive Press has published several of hi...more

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Books by David Markson

Average rating: 4.01 · 3,037 ratings · 426 reviews · 13 distinct works

	Wittgenstein’s Mistress by David Markson, Steven Moore (Afterword) 4.02 avg rating — 1,066 ratings — published 1988 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Vanishing Point: A Novel 3.99 avg rating — 437 ratings — published 2004	My rating:
	This is Not a Novel 4.00 avg rating — 438 ratings — published 2001 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Reader’s Block 4.11 avg rating — 389 ratings — published 1996 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Last Novel 4.14 avg rating — 341 ratings — published 2007 — 4 editions	My rating:
	Springer’s Progress 3.87 avg rating — 108 ratings — published 1977 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Epitaph for a Tramp and Epitaph for a Dead Beat: The Harry Fannin Detective Novels 3.82 avg rating — 95 ratings — published 1959	My rating:
	Going Down 3.50 avg rating — 56 ratings — published 1970 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Ballad Of Dingus Magee 3.83 avg rating — 65 ratings — published 1965 — 3 editions	My rating:
	Collected Poems 3.00 avg rating — 19 ratings — published 1993	My rating:

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Quotes by David Markson

“You can learn more by going to the opera than you ever can by reading Emerson. Like that there are two sexes.”
― David Markson

tags: emerson , gender , men , opera , poetry , women

8 people liked it

“Once, Turner had himself lashed to the mast of a ship for several hours, during a furious storm, so that he could later paint the storm. Obviously, it was not the storm itself that Turner intended to paint. What he intended to paint was a representation of the storm. One's language is frequently imprecise in that manner, I have discovered.”
― David Markson, Wittgenstein’s Mistress

tags: imprecision , language , painting , representation , turner , writing

7 people liked it

“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.”
― David Markson, Wittgenstein’s Mistress

tags: frighten , silence

6 people liked it

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David Markson

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by David Markson

Quotes by David Markson

Topics Mentioning This Author

combine editions
Books by David Markson