Sad news from my hometown of Claremont, California: David Foster Wallace hanged himself in his Claremont home on Friday, September 12th. He was on sabbatical this semester after teaching creative writing at my alma mater, Pomona College, for the past six years. He was 46.
This is the second suicide in the past 11 years for Pomona College's English department. Professor Brian Stonehill died just weeks before I began at Pomona in August 1997. Officially, Brian died in an automobile accident. The automobile part is accurate, however the 'accident' from all indications was not accidental: Brian drove his car down a local mountain road at high speed into a giant boulder that lay at roadside.
I never thought Claremont was that depressing...
Also, please check out this commencement address that Wallace gave at Kenyon College a few years back. It is pretty great (stolen from AVClub). He even makes reference to suicide.
R.I.P. guys.
Your Unfaithful Servant
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