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. Wallace is widely known for his 1996 novel ''
Infinite Jest'', which ''
Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and event (philosophy), events that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various me ...
'' magazine cited as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005.
His posthumous novel, ''
The Pale King'' (2011), was a finalist for the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published durin ...
in 2012. The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...
''s David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".
Wallace grew up in Illinois and attended
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...
. He taught English at
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
,
Illinois State University, and
Pomona College. In 2008, he died by
suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...
at age 46 after struggling with
depression for many years.
Early life and education
David Foster Wallace was born in
Ithaca, New York
Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named ...
, to Sally Jean Wallace (' Foster) and
James Donald Wallace. The family moved to
Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, where he was raised along with his younger sister, Amy Wallace-Havens.
His father was a philosophy professor at the
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Un ...
. His mother was an English professor at
Parkland College
Parkland College is a public community college in Champaign, Illinois. It is part of the Illinois Community College System serving Community College District 505 which includes parts of Coles, Champaign, DeWitt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Iro ...
, a community college in Champaign, which recognized her work with a "Professor of the Year" award in 1996. From fourth grade, Wallace lived with his family in
Urbana __NOTOC__
Urbana can refer to:
Places Italy
*Urbana, Italy
United States
*Urbana, Illinois
**Urbana (conference), a Christian conference formerly held in Urbana, Illinois
*Urbana, Indiana
* Urbana, Iowa
*Urbana, Kansas
* Urbana, Maryland
*Urbana, ...
, where he attended Yankee Ridge Elementary School, Brookens Junior High School and
Urbana High School.
As an adolescent, Wallace was a regionally ranked junior
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...
player. He wrote about this period in the essay "Derivative Sport in Tornado Alley", originally published in ''
Harper's Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
'' as "Tennis, Trigonometry, Tornadoes". Although his parents were
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
s, Wallace twice attempted to join the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
, but "flunk
dthe period of inquiry". He later attended a
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the R ...
church.
Wallace attended
Amherst College
Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educati ...
, his father's alma mater, where he majored in English and philosophy and graduated ''
summa cum laude
Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sou ...
'' in 1985. Among other extracurricular activities, he participated in
glee club; his sister recalls that he "had a lovely singing voice".
In studying philosophy, Wallace pursued
modal logic
Modal logic is a collection of formal systems developed to represent statements about necessity and possibility. It plays a major role in philosophy of language, epistemology, metaphysics, and natural language semantics. Modal logics extend ot ...
and mathematics, and presented a senior thesis in philosophy and modal logic that was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize and posthumously published as ''Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will'' (2011).
Wallace adapted his honors thesis in English as the manuscript of his first novel, ''
The Broom of the System
''The Broom of the System'' is the first novel by the American writer David Foster Wallace, published in 1987.
Background
Wallace submitted the novel as one of two undergraduate honors theses at Amherst College, the other being a paper on Richa ...
'' (1987), and committed to being a writer. He told
David Lipsky: "Writing ''The Broom of the System'', I felt like I was using 97 percent of me, whereas philosophy was using 50 percent." Wallace completed a
Master of Fine Arts
A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.)
is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts ...
degree in creative writing at the
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first ...
in 1987. He moved to Massachusetts to attend graduate school in philosophy at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
, but soon left the program.
Later life
In the early 1990s, Wallace was in a relationship with writer
Mary Karr. She later described Wallace as obsessive about her and said the relationship was volatile, with Wallace once throwing a coffee table at her and once forcing her out of a car, leaving her to walk home.
Years later, she said that Wallace's biographer D. T. Max underreported Wallace's abuse. Of Max's account of their relationship, she tweeted, "That's about 2% of what happened." She said that Wallace kicked her, climbed up the side of her house at night, and followed her 5-year-old son home from school. Several scholars and writers noted that Max's biography did cover the abuse and did not ignore the allegations Karr later reiterated on Twitter.
In 2002, Wallace met the painter
Karen L. Green, whom he married on December 27, 2004.
![Con David Foster Wallace](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2d/Con_David_Foster_Wallace.jpg)
Wallace struggled with depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, and suicidal tendencies, and was repeatedly hospitalized for psychiatric care. In 1989, he spent four weeks at
McLean Hospital
McLean Hospital () (formerly known as Somerville Asylum and Charlestown Asylum) is a psychiatric hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. It is noted for its clinical staff expertise and neuroscience research and is also known for the large number of ...
—a psychiatric institute in
Belmont, Massachusetts
Belmont is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. It is a western suburb of Boston, Massachusetts, United States; and is part of the Greater Boston metropolitan area. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town's population stood at 27,29 ...
, affiliated with the Harvard Medical School—where he successfully completed a drug and alcohol detox program. He later said his time there changed his life.
Dogs were important to Wallace,
and he spoke of opening a shelter for stray canines.
According to his friend
Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pri ...
, he "had a predilection for dogs who'd been abused, and
ereunlikely to find other owners who were going to be patient enough for them".
Work
Career
''
The Broom of the System
''The Broom of the System'' is the first novel by the American writer David Foster Wallace, published in 1987.
Background
Wallace submitted the novel as one of two undergraduate honors theses at Amherst College, the other being a paper on Richa ...
'' (1987) garnered national attention and critical praise. 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.'',
nd John Irving's ''
World According to Garp''".
![Infinite Jest 2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bc/Infinite_Jest_2.jpg)
In 1991, Wallace began teaching literature as an adjunct professor at
Emerson College
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands ( Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a ...
in Boston. The next year, at the suggestion of colleague and supporter
Steven Moore, Wallace obtained a position in the
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
department at
Illinois State University. He had begun work on his second novel, ''
Infinite Jest'', in 1991, and submitted a draft to his editor in December 1993. After the publication of excerpts throughout 1995, the book was published in 1996.
In 1997, Wallace received a
MacArthur Fellowship. He also received the
Aga Khan Prize for Fiction
The Aga Khan Prize for Fiction was awarded by the editors of '' The Paris Review'' for what they deem to be the best short story published in the magazine in a given year. The last prize was given in 2004. No applications were accepted. The winner ...
, awarded by editors of ''
The Paris Review
''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published works by Jack Kerouac, Phi ...
'' for one of the stories in ''
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'' is a short story collection by the late American writer David Foster Wallace, first published in 1999 by Little, Brown. According to the papers in the David Foster Wallace Archive at the Harry Ransom Center ...
'', which had been published in the magazine.
In 2002, Wallace moved to
Claremont, California
Claremont () is a suburban city on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of downtown Los Angeles. It is in the Pomona Valley, at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 census it had a popu ...
, to become the first
Roy E. Disney Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at
Pomona College. He taught one or two undergraduate courses per semester and focused on writing.
Wallace delivered the commencement address to the 2005 graduating class at
Kenyon College
Kenyon College is a private liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. It was founded in 1824 by Philander Chase. Kenyon College is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission.
Kenyon has 1,708 undergraduates enrolled. Its 1,000-acre campus is s ...
. The speech was published as a book, ''
This Is Water'', in 2009. In May 2013 parts of the speech were used in a popular online video, also titled "This Is Water".
Bonnie Nadell was Wallace's literary agent during his entire career.
Michael Pietsch was his editor on ''Infinite Jest''.
Wallace died in 2008. In March 2009,
Little, Brown and Company
Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...
announced that it would publish the manuscript of an unfinished novel, ''
The Pale King'', that Wallace had been working on before his death. Pietsch pieced the novel together from pages and notes Wallace left behind.
Several excerpts were published in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' and other magazines. ''The Pale King'' was published on April 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews. Michiko Kakutani of ''The New York Times'' wrote that ''The Pale King'' "showcases
allace'sembrace 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." The book was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
Throughout his career, Wallace published short fiction in periodicals such as ''The New Yorker'', ''
GQ'', ''
Harper's Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
'', ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's Lifestyle magazine, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from H ...
'', ''The Paris Review'', ''
Mid-American Review
''Mid-American Review'' (''MAR'') is an international literary journal dedicated to publishing contemporary fiction, poetry, nonfiction, and translations. Founded in 1981, ''MAR'' is a publication of the Department of English and the College of Ar ...
'', ''
Conjunctions'', ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
'', ''
Open City
In war, an open city is a settlement which has announced it has abandoned all defensive efforts, generally in the event of the imminent capture of the city to avoid destruction. Once a city has declared itself open the opposing military will b ...
'', ''
Puerto del Sol'', and ''
Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern
''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'' is an American literary journal, founded in 1998, typically containing short stories, reportage, and illustrations. Some issues also include poetry, comic strips, and novellas. ''The Quarterly Concern'' is ...
''.
Themes and styles
Wallace wanted to progress beyond the
irony
Irony (), in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what on the surface appears to be the case and what is actually the case or to be expected; it is an important rhetorical device and literary technique.
Irony can be categorized int ...
and
metafiction
Metafiction is a form of fiction which emphasises its own narrative structure in a way that continually reminds the audience that they are reading or viewing a fictional work. Metafiction is self-conscious about language, literary form, and stor ...
associated with
postmodernism
Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...
and explore a
post-postmodern
Post-postmodernism is a wide-ranging set of developments in critical theory, philosophy, architecture, art, literature, and culture which are emerging from and reacting to postmodernism.
Periodization
Most scholars would agree that modernism bega ...
or
metamodern style. In the essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction" (written 1990, published 1993), he proposed that television has an ironic influence on fiction, and urged literary authors to eschew TV's shallow rebelliousness:
"I want to convince you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridicule are distinctive of those features of contemporary U.S. culture (of which cutting-edge fiction is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird, pretty hand has my generation by the throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that, at the same time, they are agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that, for aspiring fictionists, they pose terrifically vexing problems."
Wallace used many forms of irony but tended to focus on individual persons' continued longing for earnest, unself-conscious experience and communication in a media-saturated society.
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
In language, a clause is a constituent that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject and a syntactic predicate, the latter typically a verb phrase composed of a verb wit ...
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. In a 1997 interview on ''
Charlie Rose
Charles Peete Rose Jr. (born January 5, 1942) is an American former television journalist and talk show host. From 1991 to 2017, he was the host and executive producer of the talk show '' Charlie Rose'' on PBS and Bloomberg LP.
Rose also co- ...
'', Wallace said that the notes were to disrupt the linear narrative, to reflect his perception of reality without jumbling the narrative structure, and that he could have jumbled the sentences "but then no one would read it".
D. T. Max has described Wallace's work as an "unusual mixture of the cerebral and the hot-blooded", often featuring multiple protagonists and spanning different locations in a single work. His writing comments on the fragmentation of thought, the relationship between happiness and boredom, and the psychological tension between the beauty and hideousness of the human body. According to Wallace, "fiction's about what it is to be a fucking human being", and he said he wanted to write "morally passionate, passionately moral fiction" that could help the reader "become less alone inside". In his Kenyon College commencement address, Wallace described the human condition as daily crises and chronic disillusionment and warned against succumbing to
solipsism, invoking the existential values of compassion and mindfulness:
Nonfiction
Wallace covered Senator
John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign and the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...
for ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
''; cruise ships (in what became the title essay of his first nonfiction book),
state fairs, and
tornadoes
A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alth ...
for ''
Harper's Magazine
''Harper's Magazine'' is a monthly magazine of literature, politics, culture, finance, and the arts. Launched in New York City in June 1850, it is the oldest continuously published monthly magazine in the U.S. (''Scientific American'' is older, b ...
''; the
US Open tournament for ''
Tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...
'' magazine; the director
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...
and the
pornography industry for ''
Premiere
A première, also spelled premiere, is the debut (first public presentation) of a play, film, dance, or musical composition.
A work will often have many premières: a world première (the first time it is shown anywhere in the world), its fi ...
'' magazine; the
tennis
Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...
player
Michael Joyce for ''
Esquire
Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title.
In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...
''; the movie-special-effects industry for ''
Waterstone's
Waterstones, formerly Waterstone's, is a British book retailer that operates 311 shops, mainly in the United Kingdom and also other nearby countries. As of February 2014, it employs around 3,500 staff in the UK and Europe. An average-sized Wa ...
'' magazine; conservative talk radio host
John Ziegler for ''
The Atlantic
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''; and a
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...
lobster festival for ''
Gourmet'' magazine. He also reviewed books in several genres for the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', and ''
The Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pen ...
''. 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".
These and other essays appear in three collections, ''
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
''A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments'' is a 1997 collection of nonfiction writing by David Foster Wallace.
In the title essay, originally published in '' Harper's'' as "Shipping Out", Wallace describes the excesses ...
'', ''
Consider the Lobster
''Consider the Lobster and Other Essays'' (2005) is a collection of essays by novelist David Foster Wallace. It is also the title of one of the essays, which was published in ''Gourmet'' magazine in 2004. The title alludes to '' Consider the Oyst ...
'' and the posthumous ''
Both Flesh and Not'', the last of which contains some of Wallace's earliest work, including his first published essay, "Fictional Futures and the Conspicuously Young".
Some writers have found parts of Wallace's nonfiction implausible. Franzen has said that he believes Wallace made up dialogue and incidents: "those things didn't actually happen".
John Cook has remarked that "Wallace encounters pitch-perfect characters who speak comedically crystalline lines and place him in hilariously absurd situations...I used both stories ''
n teaching journalism' as examples of the inescapable temptation to shave, embellish, and invent narratives".
Death
Wallace's father said that David had suffered from
major depressive disorder
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Intro ...
for more than 20 years and that
antidepressant
Antidepressants are a class of medication used to treat major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic pain conditions, and to help manage addictions. Common Side effect, side-effects of antidepressants include Xerostomia, dry mouth, weig ...
medication had allowed him to be productive.
Wallace suffered what was believed to be a severe interaction of the medication with the food he had eaten one day at a restaurant,
and in June 2007, on his doctor's advice, he stopped taking
phenelzine, his primary antidepressant drug.
His depression recurred, and he tried other treatments, including
electroconvulsive therapy
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...
. Eventually he went back on phenelzine but found it ineffective.
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.
Memorial gatherings were held at Pomona College, Amherst College, the University of Arizona, Illinois State University, and on October 23, 2008, at New York University (NYU). The
eulogists at NYU included his sister, Amy Wallace-Havens; his literary agent, Bonnie Nadell;
Gerry Howard, editor of his first two books;
Colin Harrison, an editor at ''Harper's Magazine''; Michael Pietsch, editor of ''Infinite Jest'' and later works; Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at ''The New Yorker'' magazine; and the writers
Don DeLillo,
Zadie Smith,
George Saunders, Mark Costello,
Donald Antrim
Donald Antrim (born 1958) is an American novelist. His first novel, '' Elect Mr. Robinson for a Better World'', was published in 1993.
In 1999, ''The New Yorker'' named him as among the 20 best writers under the age of 40. In 2013, he was named ...
, and
Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pri ...
.
Legacy
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
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...
. They are held at that university's
Harry Ransom Center.
Since 2011
Loyola University New Orleans
Loyola University New Orleans is a private Jesuit university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Originally established as Loyola College in 1904, the institution was chartered as a university in 1912. It bears the name of the Jesuit founder, Saint Igna ...
has offered English seminar courses on Wallace. Similar courses have also been taught at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
. The first David Foster Wallace Conference was hosted by the
Illinois State University Department of English in May 2014; the second was held in May 2015.
In January 2017 the International David Foster Wallace Society and the ''Journal of David Foster Wallace Studies'' were launched.
Among the writers who have cited Wallace as an influence are
Dave Eggers
Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He wrote the 2000 best-selling memoir ''A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius''. Eggers is also the founder of ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', a lite ...
,
Jonathan Franzen
Jonathan Earl Franzen (born August 17, 1959) is an American novelist and essayist. His 2001 novel ''The Corrections'', a sprawling, satirical family drama, drew widespread critical acclaim, earned Franzen a National Book Award, was a Pulitzer Pri ...
,
Rivka Galchen
Rivka Galchen (born April 19, 1976) is a Canadian-American writer. Her first novel, ''Atmospheric Disturbances'', was published in 2008 and was awarded the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. She is the author of five books and a con ...
,
Matthew Gallaway,
David Gordon,
John Green
John Michael Green (born August 24, 1977) is an American author, YouTube content creator, podcaster, and philanthropist. His books have more than 50 million copies in print worldwide, including '' The Fault in Our Stars'' (2012), which is ...
,
Porochista Khakpour
Porochista Khakpour (Farsi: پوروچیستا خاکپور, born January 17, 1978) is an Iranian American novelist, essayist, and journalist.
A refugee from Iran whose family fled the Iran-Iraq War and the Islamic Revolution, Khakpour grew up ...
,
George Saunders,
Mike Schur
Michael Herbert Schur (born 1975) is an American television producer, writer, director and actor. He was a producer and writer for the comedy series '' The Office'', and co-created '' Parks and Recreation'' with ''Office'' producer Greg Daniels ...
,
Zadie Smith,
Darin Strauss
Darin Strauss is a best-selling American writer whose work has earned a number of awards, including, among numerous others, a Guggenheim Fellowship and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Strauss's 2011 book '' Half a Life,'' won the 2011 ...
,
Deb Olin Unferth
Deb Olin Unferth (born November 19, 1968) is an American short story writer, novelist, and memoirist. She is the author of the collection of stories ''Minor Robberies'', the novel ''Vacation'', both published by ''McSweeney's'', and the memoir, ...
,
Elizabeth Wurtzel
Elizabeth Lee Wurtzel (July 31, 1967 – January 7, 2020) was an American writer, journalist, and lawyer known for the confessional memoir ''Prozac Nation'', which she published at the age of 27. Her work often focused on chronicling her persona ...
, and
Charles Yu
Charles Chowkai Yu (born January 3, 1976) is an American writer. He is the author of the novels ''How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe'' and '' Interior Chinatown'', as well as the short-story collections ''Third Class Superhero'' ...
.
Adaptations
Film and television
A
feature-length film adaptation of ''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'', directed by
John Krasinski with an ensemble cast, was released in 2009 and premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
.
The 19th episode of the 23rd season of ''
The Simpsons
''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, ...
'', "
A Totally Fun Thing That Bart Will Never Do Again" (2012), is loosely based on Wallace's essay "Shipping Out" from his 1997 collection, ''
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
''A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments'' is a 1997 collection of nonfiction writing by David Foster Wallace.
In the title essay, originally published in '' Harper's'' as "Shipping Out", Wallace describes the excesses ...
''. 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.
The 2015 film ''
The End of the Tour
''The End of the Tour'' is a 2015 American drama film about writer David Foster Wallace. The film stars Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg, was written by Donald Margulies, and was directed by James Ponsoldt. Based on David Lipsky's best-selling ...
'' is based on conversations
David Lipsky had with Wallace, transcribed in ''
Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself
''Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace'' is a 2010 memoir by David Lipsky, about a five-day road trip with the author David Foster Wallace. It is based upon a ''Rolling Stone'' magazine story that ...
'' (2010).
Jason Segel
Jason Jordan Segel ( ; born January 18, 1980) is an American actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Marshall Eriksen in the CBS sitcom '' How I Met Your Mother'', as well as for his work with director and ...
played Wallace, and
Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Adam Eisenberg (; born October 5, 1983) is an American actor, writer, and director. He has received various accolades, including nominations for an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. ...
Lipsky. The film won an Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature at the
Sarasota Film Festival
The Sarasota Film Festival is a film festival located in Sarasota, Florida and is held in April. Its mission is "to celebrate the art of filmmaking and the contribution of filmmakers by hosting an international film festival and developing year-lo ...
, and Segel was nominated for the
Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
"Partridge", a Season 5 episode of
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's ''
Parks and Recreation'', repeatedly references ''Infinite Jest'', of which the show's co-creator,
Michael Schur
Michael Herbert Schur (born 1975) is an American television producer, writer, director and actor. He was a producer and writer for the comedy series ''The Office'', and co-created ''Parks and Recreation'' with ''Office'' producer Greg Daniels. ...
, is a noted fan. Schur also directed the music video for
The Decemberists
The Decemberists are an American indie rock band from Portland, Oregon. The band consists of Colin Meloy ( lead vocals, guitar, principal songwriter), Chris Funk (guitar, multi-instrumentalist), Jenny Conlee (piano, keyboards, accordion), Nate ...
' "Calamity Song", which depicts the Eschaton game from ''Infinite Jest.''
Stage and music adaptations
Twelve of the interviews from ''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'' were adapted as a stage play in 2000 by Dylan McCullough. This was the first theatrical adaptation of Wallace's work. The play, ''Hideous Men'', was also directed by McCullough, and premiered at the
New York International Fringe Festival
The New York International Fringe Festival, or FringeNYC, was a fringe theater festival and one of the largest multi-arts events in North America. It took place over the course of a few weeks in October, spread on more than 20 stages across sev ...
in August 2000.
''Brief Interviews'' was also adapted by director Marc Caellas as a play, ''Brief Interviews with Hideous Writers'', which premiered at Fundación Tomás Eloy Martinez in
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
on November 4, 2011. In 2012 it was adapted as a play by artist
Andy Holden for a two-night run at the
ICA in London.
The short story "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko", from ''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'', was adapted by composer
Eric Moe into a 50-minute operatic piece, to be performed with accompanying video projections. The piece was described as having "subversively inscribed classical music into pop culture".
''Infinite Jest'' was performed once as a stage play by Germany's experimental theater
Hebbel am Ufer
The Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) is a theater and international performance center based in Berlin. It was founded by combining three theaters in Kreuzberg, Berlin: Hebbel Theater (now called HAU1), Theater am Halleschen Ufer (theater at Hallesches Ufer) ...
. The play was staged in various locations throughout
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, and the action took place over a 24-hour period.
"Good Old Neon", from ''
Oblivion: Stories'', was adapted and performed by Ian Forester at the 2011
Hollywood Fringe Festival
The Hollywood Fringe Festival is an annual fringe theatre festival in Hollywood, California. Most indoor venues for the festival are in and around Hollywood Theatre Row, a stretch of Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Founder Ben Hill ...
, produced by the Los Angeles independent theater company Needtheater.
The song "Surrounded by Heads and Bodies", from the album ''
A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships'' by
The 1975
The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in 2002 in Wilmslow, Cheshire. Now based in Manchester, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matthew "Matty" Healy, lead guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald, and drummer ...
, borrows its title from the opening line of ''Infinite Jest''.
Matty Healy
The 1975 are an English pop rock band formed in 2002 in Wilmslow, Wilmslow, Cheshire. Now based in Manchester, the band consists of lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Matthew "Matty" Healy, lead guitarist Adam Hann, bassist Ross MacDonald, and ...
, The 1975's lead singer, said in an interview with ''
Pitchfork
A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves.
The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...
'' that he was inspired by the novel after reading it during a stint in rehab:
Bibliography
Novels
* ''
The Broom of the System
''The Broom of the System'' is the first novel by the American writer David Foster Wallace, published in 1987.
Background
Wallace submitted the novel as one of two undergraduate honors theses at Amherst College, the other being a paper on Richa ...
'' (1987).
* ''
Infinite Jest'' (1996).
* ''
The Pale King'' (2011, posthumous).
* ''
Something to Do with Paying Attention'' (2022, posthumous, novella)
Short story collections
* ''
Girl with Curious Hair
''Girl with Curious Hair'' is a collection of short stories by American writer David Foster Wallace, first published in 1989. Though the stories are not related, several reflect Wallace's concern with contemporary trends in fiction, including meta ...
'' (1989).
* ''
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'' is a short story collection by the late American writer David Foster Wallace, first published in 1999 by Little, Brown. According to the papers in the David Foster Wallace Archive at the Harry Ransom Center ...
'' (1999).
* ''
Oblivion: Stories'' (2004).
Nonfiction collections
* ''
A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again
''A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments'' is a 1997 collection of nonfiction writing by David Foster Wallace.
In the title essay, originally published in '' Harper's'' as "Shipping Out", Wallace describes the excesses ...
'' (1997).
* ''
Consider the Lobster
''Consider the Lobster and Other Essays'' (2005) is a collection of essays by novelist David Foster Wallace. It is also the title of one of the essays, which was published in ''Gourmet'' magazine in 2004. The title alludes to '' Consider the Oyst ...
'' (2005).
* ''
Both Flesh and Not'' (2012).
osthumous
Other books
* 2003: ''
Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity.''
* 2010: ''Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will.'' Columbia University Press, 2010
eprint
In academic publishing, an eprint or e-print is a digital version of a research document (usually a journal article, but could also be a thesis, conference paper, book chapter, or a book) that is accessible online, usually as green open access, w ...
. An essay collection.
* (2014): ''The David Foster Wallace Reader.'' .
osthumousA collection of excerpts.
Awards and honors
*
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
nomination for ''
The Pale King'', 2012. No prize was awarded for the fiction category that year
* Inclusion of "Good Old Neon" in ''
The O. Henry Prize Stories 2002''
* John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, 1997–2002
* Lannan Foundation Residency Fellow, July–August 2000
* Named to Usage Panel, ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' 4th Ed. ''et seq.'', 1999
* Inclusion of "The Depressed Person" in ''Prize Stories 1999: The O. Henry Awards''
* Illinois State University, Outstanding University Researcher, 1998 and 1999
Pomona College, Faculty Directory
Archived September 2008, last updated October 13, 2005.
* Aga Khan Prize for Fiction
The Aga Khan Prize for Fiction was awarded by the editors of '' The Paris Review'' for what they deem to be the best short story published in the magazine in a given year. The last prize was given in 2004. No applications were accepted. The winner ...
for the story "Brief Interviews with Hideous Men #6", 1997
* ''Time'' magazine's Best Books of the Year (Fiction), 1996
* Salon Book Award
''Salon'' is an American Progressivism in the United States, politically progressive/Modern liberalism in the United States, liberal news and opinion website created in 1995. It publishes articles on Politics of the United States, U.S. politics ...
(Fiction), 1996
* Lannan Literary Award
The Lannan Literary Awards are a series of awards and literary fellowships given out in various fields by the Lannan Foundation. Established in 1989, the awards are meant "to honor both established and emerging writers whose work is of exceptional ...
(Fiction), 1996
* Inclusion of "Here and There" in ''Prize Stories 1989: The O. Henry Awards''
* Whiting Award, 1987
See also
* Hysterical realism
Hysterical realism is a term coined in 2000 by English critic James Wood (critic), James Wood to describe what he sees as a literary genre typified by a strong contrast between elaborately absurd prose, plotting, or characterization, on the one han ...
* Postmodern literature
Postmodern literature is a form of literature that is characterized by the use of metafiction, unreliable narrator, unreliable narration, self-reflexivity, intertextuality, and which often thematizes both historical and political issues. This sty ...
* Inverse cost and quality law
The inverse cost and quality law attempts to formalize any Cinema of the United States, Hollywood cinema production characterized by a large budget and, by negative correlation, poorly perceived critical attributes. American writer David Foster Wal ...
References
Sources
*
External links
Biographical
David Foster Wallace Archive
The University of Texas at Austin
Whiting Foundation Profile
Portals
David Foster Wallace AUDIO PROJECT
International David Foster Wallace Society
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallace, David Foster
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