David Foster Wallace committed suicide on 12th September 2008 at the age of 46. His works includes the novels The Broom of the System (1987) and Infinite Jest (1996); the short story collections Girl with Curious Hair (1989) Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999), and Oblivion: Stories (2004); and non-fiction works Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race In the Urban Present (1990), co-authored with Mark Costello, A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again (1997), Up, Simba! (2000), Everything and More (2003) and Consider the Lobster (2005).
David Foster Wallace’s work has been likened to that of Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo and DFW’s contemporaries William T. Vollmann and Richard Powers. A staggeringly intelligent and gifted author, his “Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage” is a classic study of grammar and an object lesson in how to write an essay; likewise “E Unibus Pluram” – an invigorating analysis of television’s influence on contemporary literature.
The DFW website The Howling Fantods has more news and links to obituaries from around the world. Condolences to all concerned.
First posted: Sunday, September 14th, 2008.
