Fifteen brilliant, dazzling, never-before-collected nonfiction seminal essays and nonfiction pieces by bestselling author David Foster Wallace that explores tennis, literature, philosophy, and popular culture with his signature blend of intellectual depth, humor, and relentless curiosity.

'one of America's most daring and talented writers.' —Los Angeles Times Book Review

Never has Wallace's seemingly endless curiosity been more evident than in this compilation of work spanning nearly 20 years of writing. Here, Wallace turns his critical eye with equal enthusiasm toward Roger Federer and Jorge Luis Borges; Terminator 2 and The Best of the Prose Poem; the nature of being a fiction writer and the quandary of defining the essay; the best underappreciated novels and the English language's most irksome misused words; and much more. 

Both Flesh and Not restores Wallace's essays as originally written, and it includes a selection from his personal vocabulary list, an assembly of unusual words and definitions.