Last Updated: 30 Apr, 2024 | Views: 455
Age: 46
Profession: Writer
Famous For: His Second Novel, Infinite Jest (1996)
Higher Education: Graduated
About (Profile/Biography):
David Foster Wallace was born on 21st February 1962 and died on 12th September 2008. He has written novels, short stories, essays, and taught English at universities in English.He was cited by Time magazine in its 100 best English-language novels from 1923- 2005 for his novel Infinite Jest, published in 1996. Wallace attended Amherst College after growing up in Illinois. His teaching experience includes Emerson College, Illinois State University, and Pomona College. He suffered from depression for many years before committing suicide.
David Foster Wallace Career:
• In 1991, David Foster Wallacebegan teaching literature at Emerson College. Wallace was hired by Illinois State University's English department the following year on the recommendation of colleague Steven Moore.
• David Foster Wallacebegan writing Infinite Jest in 1991 and published it in December 1993.The book was published in 1996 after excerpts were published throughout 1995.
• David Foster Wallacereceived a MacArthur Fellowship in 1997. He was also awarded the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction for one of the stories in Brief Interviews with Hideous Men.
David Foster Wallace Legacy:
Wallace's papers and archives, including his handwritten notes for Infinite Jest and drafts of books, stories, essays, poems, and letters, were acquired in March 2010 by the University of Texas at Austin. The Harry Ransom Center at that university houses them.
David Foster Wallace Bibliography:
• 1987: The Broom of the System
• 1989: Girl with Curious Hair
• 1996: Infinite Jest
• 1999: Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
• 2005: Consider the Lobster
• 2012: Both Flesh and Not
David Foster Wallace Awards:
• 1996: Salon Book Award | Lannan Literary Award | Time magazine's Best Books of the Year
• 1987: Whiting Award
• 2012: Pulitzer Prize nomination for The Pale King
David Foster Wallace Unknown Facts:
His life was plagued by depression. Following his experience with mental illness, he became an advocate for mental health awareness. He often wrote about despair, isolation, and the challenges of contemporary life in his writings.
David Foster Wallace’s academic interests went beyond philosophy. Moreover, he was fascinated by theoretical linguistics and wrote his undergraduate thesis on modal logic and fiction semantics.
