David Foster Wallace died September 12, 2008 in Claremont, California. He was born on February 21, 1962, in Ithaca, New York, and raised in Illinois. Graduating summa cum laude from Amherst College, he later received his MFA from the University of Arizona. Wallace, who had been named the first Roy E. Disney Endowed Professor of Creative Writing at Pomona College and had taught at Illinois State University, came to prominence in 1986 with the publication of his novel, The Broom of the System. Wallace published the story collections, Girl With Curious Hair, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and Oblivion, and several collections of essays, such as Consider the Lobster and A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again. His novel, Infinite Jest, a colossal 1,079 pages, earned him wide acclaim and comparisons to the grand stylists Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo. Wallace received a MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant in 1996.