October 03, 2009

College days with Wallace '85 and Brown '86

This has been all over the web lately, with the first anniversary of the death of David Foster Wallace ‘85 and the latest book from Dan Brown ‘86: Boston Magazine has published an article which mentions the writing seminar the two took together at Amherst:

WITH THE TRAIL GROWING COLD AT EXETER, Storrs wondered what he could uncover from Brown’s days at Amherst College. He reached Alan Lelchuk, who taught the creative-writing seminar that Brown later credited with helping him become a novelist. Brown’s writing from the class left little impression on Lelchuk. Of course, it would have been easy for anyone to be eclipsed by the enormous talent of fellow student David Foster Wallace, the heady prose stylist now regarded as one of the most gifted writers of his generation. “With Dan, he was not the star of the class, as David was, as were one or two others who were really quite good,” Lelchuk told Storrs.

“Dan was good,” he finally admitted, as if for the sake of politeness. “But in a much quieter way.”

Brian Meacham '97 | October 3, 2009 02:42 PM | Alumni

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