An instant classic of American sportswritinghe tennis essays of David Foster Wallace, he best mind of his generation?(A. O. Scott) and he best tennis-writer of all time?(New York Times) Both a onetime ear-great junior tennis player?and a lifelong connoisseur of the finer points of the game, David Foster Wallace wrote about tennis with the authority of an insider, the showmanship of a literary pyrotechnician, and disarming admiration of an irrepressible fan. String Theory gathers Wallace's five famous essays on tennis, masterpieces of memoir and profile hailed by sportswriters and literary critics alike as some of the greatest and most innovative magazine writing in recent memory. Whiting-Award winning journalist John Jeremiah Sullivan provides an introduction.