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David Foster Wallace

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David Foster Wallace

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Also known as David Wallace

American fiction writer and essayist (1962–2008)

OverviewAI-generated

David Foster Wallace was an American writer, novelist, essayist, and university teacher. Born in Ithaca, New York, in 1962, he began his work period in 1987. He was associated with the Postmodernism movement and wrote in English. His notable works include *Infinite Jest*, *The Pale King*, and *The Broom of the System*. He also contributed to *The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006* and *Both Flesh and Not*.

Wallace received the MacArthur Fellows Program award and the Whiting Awards. He was recognized in the Macarthur Fellows collection. He taught at Illinois State University, Emerson College, and Pomona College. His personal library and archives are held at the Harry Ransom Center. He died in Claremont in 2008 by hanging.

Synthesized by Vinony from 32 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, TMDb, Vinony collections. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
21 Feb 1962
Died
12 Sep 2008
Works
141

Top works

  • The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2006
  • 24 contes al dia
  • O rei pálido
  • Both Flesh and Not
  • Una cosa divertente che non farò mai più

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Ithaca, New York, USA

David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American writer and professor who published novels, short stories, and essays. He is best known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time magazine named one of the 100 best English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005. In 2008, David Ulin wrote for the Los Angeles Times that Wallace was "one of the most influential and…

Known for

  • The Unedited ZDF Interview — Himself

via TMDB

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Family name
Wallace
Gender
male
Citizenship
United States
Place of birth
Ithaca
Place of death
Claremont
Languages spoken
English language
Country for sport
United States
Image
David Foster Wallace in 2006 (cropped).jpg
Show 14 more facts
Commons category
David Foster Wallace
date of birth
1962-02-21
date of death
2008-09-12
manner of death
Suicide
cause of death
hanging to death
start of work period
1987-00-00
personal library at
Harry Ransom Center
name in native language
David Foster Wallace
nominated for
Pulitzer Prize
has written for
Los Angeles Times
maintained by WikiProject
WikiProject Mathematics
medical condition
depression
Sources (14)

via Wikidata · CC0

~22 min read

Encyclopedic overview

David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American writer and professor who published novels, short stories, and essays. He is widely known for his 1996 novel Infinite Jest, which Time magazine named one of the 100 best English-language novels published from 1923 to 2005. In 2008, David Ulin wrote for the Los Angeles Times that Wallace was "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last twenty years".

Wallace grew up in Illinois. He graduated from Amherst College and the University of Arizona. His honors thesis at Amherst was adapted into his debut novel The Broom of the System (1987). In his writing, Wallace intentionally avoided tropes of postmodern art such as irony or forms of metafiction, saying in 1990 that they were "agents of a great despair and stasis" in contemporary American culture. Infinite Jest, his second novel, is known for its unconventional narrative structure and extensive use of endnotes.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “David Foster Wallace” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)