David Foster Wallace

The loss of David Foster Wallace is, from the point of view of a lover of contemporary literature and a bookseller, too enormous for me to put into words. I can only say that I read The Broom of the System when I was 17, and after that decided that reading more books would be a very good thing.

I will instead direct you to the front page at McSweeney's, where friends and admirers are doing their best to make sense not of his death, but his life and influence.

And I will also direct you to Harper's where his essays and stories—including a howlingly funny excerpt from whatever it was he was working on called "The Compliance Branch"—are available to download and read.

Condolences to his family, his friends, and his readers.