He was one of my favorite contemporary american authors and essayists and one of my favorite all times authors, this is incredibly tragic. His wife found him at home, he had hung himself. He taught english at Pemona College, and from what I heard was a great teacher. He was awarded the Macarther genius grant in 1997, and his most famous book "Infinite Jest" was one of Time's 100 best english language novels from 1923 to 2005. He was also a well versed mathematician. If you haven't read any of his works, go pick up Infinite Jest, or one of his short story compilations (Brief interviews with Hideous men is my favorite) or one of his essay compilations (consider the lobster being my favorite). This is a great tragedy for the literary world, and for contemporary thinkers everywhere.
The news story can be found here. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26693804/
You can find me on facebook as Markus Van Rijn, if you friend me just mention you're from VGchartz and who you are here.
