R.I.P. David Foster Wallace*

Travel Blog  •  Jim Benning  •  09.13.08 | 9:05 PM ET

imagePhoto by Steve Rhodes via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Horrible news is emerging that the widely acclaimed writer committed suicide in his Claremont, California, home Friday night. Wallace is perhaps best known for the novel “Infinite Jest,” but travel lit fans also know him for his typically footnote-laden 1996 Harper’s article, “Shipping Out: On the (Nearly Lethal) Comforts of a Luxury Cruise”—one of modern travel writing’s sharpest and funniest stories. (We were just singing the story’s praises a few months ago, in fact.) His 1997 appearance on “Charlie Rose” is well worth a look. Wallace was 46.

* Updated Sunday, Sept. 14: The New York Writers Institute blog remembers Wallace, observing, “His was a great voice of experimentation and liveliness that continually challenged literary expectations.”

The New York Times’ Michiko Kakutani recalls him as a “prose magician” who wrote “about everything from tennis to politics to lobsters, from the horrors of drug withdrawal to the small terrors of life aboard a luxury cruise ship, with humor and fervor and verve.” 

The Los Angeles Times travel blog has a thoughtful post. Also, via the Times’ Web Scout, here’s video of Wallace reading part of his Harper’s story, Ticket to the Fair.

Updated Monday, Sept. 15: Good news. Harper’s has made Wallace’s stories available online.

Tags: Cruising, David Foster Wallace, Literary Travel, News and Briefs


6 Comments for R.I.P. David Foster Wallace*

Andrew, Editor/Producer, LA Times Travel 09.14.08 | 6:14 AM ET

Nice appreciation, Jim. We rounded up your remembrance among many others, including several more engaging video interviews, over at the latimes.com/travelblog.

Eva 09.14.08 | 11:27 AM ET

The Book Bench has a short, well-chosen Wallace excerpt:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2008/09/infinite.html

Jim Benning 09.14.08 | 2:17 PM ET

Nice post, Andrew. (And thanks for the shout out.) That first paragraph you guys quoted—from “Shipping Out”—is just classic.  Brings a smile to my face every time I read it.

Ling 09.15.08 | 6:36 AM ET

May seem a bit cold-hearted, but none of the updates I read has anything about why DFW hanged himself. Any idea?

Sean, Editor at BudgetTravel.com 09.15.08 | 10:16 AM ET

As usual, you guys are on top of zeitgeist. I’m particularly glad you have shone a spotlight on DFW’s “Shipping Out” article.

Perhaps readers will pressure Paul Ford and other online editors at Harpers’s to put that story out on the site for free.

Jim Benning 09.15.08 | 3:23 PM ET

Thanks, Sean. Just checked and Harper’s has made the stories available to everyone. Nice gesture.

http://www.harpers.org/subjects/Commentary

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