My Take
David Foster Wallace is one of those writers who genuinely rewired how a generation thinks about fiction, irony, and what it even means to be alive inside media-saturated late-20th-century America. Infinite Jest is a beast — nearly 1,100 pages with footnotes that practically constitute a second novel — but the madness is the point: he was trying to build a form capacious enough to hold the entire anxious, entertained-to-death consciousness of his era. His essays might be even better, honestly. The cruise ship piece, the state fair piece, the tennis writing — all of them crackle with this almost painful intelligence that somehow never tips into cold cleverness. He died in 2008 at 46, and the loss still stings. The Pale King came out posthumously, unfinished, and even incomplete it showed he had more to say than most writers manage in a full career.
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.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- David Foster Wallace
- Name (Japanese)
- デヴィッド・フォスター・ウォレス
- Reading
- でゔぃっど・ふぉすたー・うぉれす
- Born
- February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Pisces / Tiger
- Origin
- Ithaca, New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- writer / novelist / essayist / university teacher
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Urbana High School
- University
- Amherst College
Awards & achievements
- MacArthur Fellows Program
- 1996 Lannan Literary Awards
- 1987 Whiting Awards
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Infinite Jest | — | |
| Notable work | The Pale King | — | |
| Notable work | A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again | — | |
| Notable work | Brief Interviews with Hideous Men | — | |
| Notable work | The Broom of the System | — | |
| Notable work | Everything and More | — |
6. Links
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.