Mr. Shawn, meanwhile, had hired Wally’s friend Jacob Brackman, and Wally’s girlfriend, Kennedy Fraser. These writers were talented. There was every reason to hire them. There simply seemed to me no justification for leaving Wally out. It also seemed to me an act of nearly filicidal aggression, to hire, and then choose as his successor, Wallace’s best friend (and school, high school, and college roommate), Jonathan Schell.
