Deathplace: Claremont, Calif.

David Wallace was a novelist, short-story author, and essayist known for unparalleled energy and philosophical contemplation about 20th century American culture. Wallace is best-known for his lengthy stream of consciousnessness novel, Infinite Jest, in which he portrays American society as self-obsessed and pleasure-obsessed. The 1,079-page novel of subversive writing had a large following of fans, and earned him the MacArthur Foundation grant the following year. Wallace suffered from depression. Although he took anti-drepressants for 20 years, he ended his own life at the young age of 46.