David Foster Wallace
David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and university professor of English and creative writing.[9][10][11] Wallace attended Amherst College, his father's alma mater, where he majored in English and philosophy and graduated summa cum laude in 1985.In 1989, he spent four weeks at McLean Hospital—a psychiatric institute in Belmont, Massachusetts, affiliated with Harvard Medical School—where he completed a drug and alcohol detoxification program.In The New York Times, Caryn James called it a "manic, human, flawed extravaganza ... emerging straight from the excessive tradition of Stanley Elkin's The Franchiser, Thomas Pynchon's V., [and] John Irving's World According to Garp".The next year, at the suggestion of colleague and supporter Steven Moore, Wallace obtained a position in the English department at Illinois State University.He also received the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, awarded by editors of The Paris Review for one of the stories in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, which had been published in the magazine.[35] Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times wrote that The Pale King "showcases [Wallace's] embrace of discontinuity; his fascination with both the meta and the microscopic, postmodern pyrotechnics and old-fashioned storytelling; and his ongoing interest in contemporary America's obsession with self-gratification and entertainment.[40] Wallace's fiction combines narrative modes and authorial voices that incorporate jargon and invented vocabulary, such as self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long, multi-clause sentences, and an extensive use of explanatory endnotes and footnotes, as in Infinite Jest and the story "Octet" (collected in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men), and most of his non-fiction after 1996.[45] In his Kenyon College commencement address, Wallace described the human condition as daily crises and chronic disillusionment and warned against succumbing to solipsism,[46] invoking the existential values of compassion and mindfulness: The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. ...In the November 2007 issue of The Atlantic, which commemorated the magazine's 150th anniversary, Wallace was among the authors, artists, politicians and others who wrote short pieces on "the future of the American idea".[17] Wallace suffered what was believed to be a severe interaction of the medication with the food he had eaten one day at a restaurant,[18][60] and in June 2007, on his doctor's advice, he stopped taking phenelzine, his primary antidepressant drug.[18] On September 12, 2008, at age 46, Wallace wrote a private two-page suicide note to his wife, arranged part of the manuscript for The Pale King, and hanged himself on the back porch of his house in Claremont, California.[62][63][64] In March 2010, it was announced that Wallace's personal papers and archives—drafts of books, stories, essays, poems, letters, and research, including the handwritten notes for Infinite Jest—had been purchased by the University of Texas at Austin.[68] Among the writers who have cited Wallace as an influence are Dave Eggers,[69] Jonathan Franzen,[70] Rivka Galchen, Matthew Gallaway, David Gordon, John Green,[71] Porochista Khakpour,[72] George Saunders,[73] Michael Schur,[74] Zadie Smith,[75] Darin Strauss,[76] Deb Olin Unferth, Elizabeth Wurtzel,[77] and Charles Yu.The Simpson family takes a cruise, and Wallace appears in the background of a scene, wearing a tuxedo T-shirt while eating in the ship's dining room."Partridge", a Season 5 episode of NBC's Parks and Recreation, repeatedly references Infinite Jest, of which the show's co-creator, Michael Schur, is a noted fan.[84] The short story "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko", from Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, was adapted by composer Eric Moe[85] into a 50-minute operatic piece, to be performed with accompanying video projections.[88] "Good Old Neon", from Oblivion: Stories, was adapted and performed by Ian Forester at the 2011 Hollywood Fringe Festival, produced by the Los Angeles independent theater company Needtheater.
Ithaca, New YorkClaremont, CaliforniaAmherst CollegeUniversity of ArizonaHarvard UniversityLiterary fictionnon-fictionPostmodern literaturepost-postmodernismMetamodernismneorealismNew SincerityInfinite JestKaren Greencreative writingThe Pale KingPulitzer Prize for FictionLos Angeles TimesEmerson CollegeIllinois State UniversityPomona CollegedepressionsuicideJames Donald WallaceChampaign-Urbana, IllinoisUniversity of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignParkland CollegeUrbanaUrbana High SchooltennisHarper's MagazineatheistsCatholic ChurchMennoniteglee clubmodal logicThe Broom of the SystemDavid LipskyMaster of Fine ArtsKaren L. GreenMcLean HospitalBelmont, MassachusettsJonathan FranzenMary KarrCaryn JamesStanley ElkinThomas PynchonJohn IrvingWorld According to GarpSteven MooreEnglishMacArthur FellowshipAga Khan Prize for FictionThe Paris ReviewBrief Interviews with Hideous MenRoy E. DisneyKenyon CollegeThis Is WaterLittle, Brown and CompanyThe New YorkerPlayboyMid-American ReviewConjunctionsEsquireOpen CityPuerto del SolTimothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concernmetafictionpostmodernismpost-postmodernmetamodernclauseendnotesCharlie RosesolipsismJohn McCain2000 presidential campaignSeptember 11 attacksRolling Stonestate fairstornadoesUS OpenRoger FedererThe New York TimesDavid Lynchpornography industryPremièreMichael JoyceWaterstone'sJohn ZieglerThe AtlanticGourmetThe Washington PostThe Philadelphia InquirerA Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do AgainConsider the LobsterBoth Flesh and Notmajor depressive disorderantidepressantphenelzineelectroconvulsive therapyeulogistsGerry HowardColin HarrisonDon DeLilloZadie SmithGeorge SaundersDonald AntrimUniversity of Texas at AustinHarry Ransom CenterLoyola University New OrleansDave EggersRivka GalchenMatthew GallawayDavid GordonJohn GreenPorochista KhakpourMichael SchurDarin StraussDeb Olin UnferthElizabeth WurtzelCharles Yu Brief Interviews with Hideous MenJohn KrasinskiSundance Film FestivalThe Simpsons