name	Zadie Smith
birth date	October 25, 1975
birth place	Brent, London, United Kingdom
occupation	Novelist, essayist, Professor of Creative Writing
nationality	British
period	2000-present
movement	realism, postmodernism, hysterical realism
influences	Vladimir Nabokov, E.M. Forster, Charles Dickens, P.G. Wodehouse, Martin Amis, Franz Kafka, Raymond Carver, Philip Roth, Salman Rushdie, Hanif Kureishi, David Foster Wallace, Zora Neale Hurston
website	}}

Zadie Smith (born 25 October 1975) is a British novelist. To date she has written three novels. In 2003, she was included on ''Granta's'' list of 20 best young authors. She joined New York University's Creative Writing Program as a tenured professor on September 1, 2010.

Early life

Zadie Smith was born as Sadie Smith in the northwest London borough of Brent – a largely working-class area – to a Jamaican mother, Yvonne Bailey, and a British father, Harvey Smith. Her mother had grown up in Jamaica and emigrated to Britain in 1969. Their marriage was her father's second. Zadie has a half-sister, a half-brother, and two younger brothers, one of whom is the rapper and stand-up comedian Doc Brown and the other is rapper Luc Skyz. As a child she was fond of tap dancing; as a teenager she considered a career as an actress in musical theatre; and as a university student she earned money as a jazz singer and wanted to become a journalist.

Her parents divorced when she was a teenager. When she was 14, she changed her name to "Zadie". Despite earlier ambitions, literature emerged as her principal interest and would provide a model for her future career.

Education

Smith attended the local state schools, Malorees Junior School and Hampstead Comprehensive School, and King's College, Cambridge University where she studied English literature. In an interview with ''The Guardian'' in 2000, Smith corrected a newspaper assertion that she left Cambridge with a double First. "Actually, I got a Third in my Part Ones", she said.

Zadie Smith seems to have been rejected for a place in the Cambridge Footlights by the popular British comedy double act Mitchell and Webb, whilst all three were studying at Cambridge University in the 1990s.

At Cambridge she published a number of short stories in a collection of new student writing called "The Mays Anthology". (See Short stories.) These attracted the attention of a publisher who offered her a contract for her first novel. Smith decided to contact a literary agent and was taken on by A.P. Watt. Smith returned to guest-edit the anthology in 2001.

Career

''White Teeth'' was introduced to the publishing world in 1997, long before it was completed. On the basis of a partial manuscript an auction among different publishers for the rights started, with Hamish Hamilton being successful. Smith completed ''White Teeth'' during her final year at Cambridge. Published in 2000, the novel became a bestseller immediately. It was praised internationally and won a number of awards (see Novels). The novel was adapted for television in 2002 by Channel 4. She also served as "writer in residence" at the ICA in London and subsequently published, as editor, an anthology of sex writing, ''Piece of Flesh'', as the culmination of this role.

In interviews she reported that the hype surrounding her first novel had caused her to suffer a short spell of writer's block. Nevertheless, her second novel, ''The Autograph Man'', was published in 2002 and was a commercial success, although the critical response was not as positive as it had been to ''White Teeth''.

After the publication of ''The Autograph Man'', Smith visited the United States as a 2002–2003 Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow at Harvard University. She started work on a still unreleased book of essays, ''The Morality of the Novel'', aka "Fail Better", in which she considers a selection of 20th century writers through the lens of moral philosophy. Some portions of this book presumably are included in the essay collection ''Changing My Mind'', published in November 2009.

The second novel was followed by another, ''On Beauty'', published in September 2005 and which is set largely in and around Greater Boston and which attracted more acclaim. This third novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and won the 2006 Orange Prize for Fiction.

In December 2008 she guest edited the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

After teaching fiction at Columbia University School of the Arts, she joined New York University as a tenured professor of fiction as of September 1, 2010.

As of the March 2010 issue, Smith became the monthly New Books reviewer for Harper's Magazine.

Personal life

Smith met Nick Laird at Cambridge University. They married in 2004 in the Chapel of King's College, Cambridge. Smith dedicated ''On Beauty'' to "my dear Laird". The couple lived in Monti, Rome, Italy from November 2006–2007 and are now based between New York City and Queen's Park, London. They have a daughter, Katherine (born 2009).

Works

Short stories

"Mirrored Box" in ''The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories'' (1995)

"The Newspaper Man" in ''The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories'' (1996)

"Mrs. Begum's Son and the Private Tutor" in ''The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories'' (1997)

"Picnic, Lightning" in ''The Mays Anthology of Oxford and Cambridge Short Stories'' (1997)

"Stuart" in ''The New Yorker'' Winter Fiction Issue 1999.

"The Girl with Bangs" in ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', Issue 6, 2001.

"The Trials of Finch" in ''The New Yorker'' Winter Fiction Issue 2002.

"Martha, Martha" in ''Granta'' 81: Best of Young British Novelists (2003)

"Hanwell in Hell" in ''The New Yorker'' 27 September 2004.

"Hanwell Snr" in ''The New Yorker'' 14 May 2007; collected in ''The Book of Other People'' (2007)

Novels

''White Teeth'' (2000)

''The Autograph Man'' (2002)

''On Beauty'' (2005)

Edited collections

''Piece of Flesh'' (2001), an anthology of erotic short stories featuring Daren King, Toby Litt and Matt Thorne.

''The Book of Other People'' (2007)

Non-fiction

"On the Road: American Writers and Their Hair", essay written to be read aloud at Neal Pollack's Timothy McSweeney's Festival of Literature, Theater, and Music, 2001.

"We proceed in Iraq as hypocrites and cowards - and the world knows it" in ''The Guardian'', 27 February 2003.

"The divine Ms H" in ''The Guardian'', 1 July 2003, an essay on Katharine Hepburn.

"The Limited Circle is Pure" in ''The New Republic'', 3 November 2003, an essay on Franz Kafka for a 2005 reissue of ''The Trial'', for which she also wrote a foreword.

"Love, Actually" in ''The Guardian'', 1 November 2003, an essay on E. M. Forster, based on her lecture at the Gielgud Theatre in London on 22 October 2003.

"You Are In Paradise" in ''The New Yorker'', 14 June 2004, essay on holidays.

"Shades of Greene" in ''The Guardian'', 18 September 2004, introduction to the 50th anniversary edition of ''The Quiet American'' by Graham Greene.

"The Zen of Eminem" in ''VIBE'' 2005, an essay on the rap star Eminem.

"We are family" in ''The Guardian'', 4 March 2005, an interview by Zadie Smith with her brother Doc Brown.

"Nature's Work of Art" in ''The Guardian'', 15 September 2005, an essay on Greta Garbo.

"Fail better" in ''The Guardian'', 13 January 2007, an essay on writing.

"What does soulful mean?" in ''The Guardian'', 1 September 2007, an essay on Hurston's ''Their Eyes Were Watching God''.

"F. Kafka, Everyman" in ''The New York Review of Books'', 17 July 2008, a review of ''The Tremendous World I Have Inside My Head: Franz Kafka: A Biographical Essay'', by Louis Begley.

"Dead man laughing" in ''The New Yorker'', 22 & 29 December 2008, a personal history of humour appreciation in her family.

''Changing My Mind: Occasional Essays'' (Penguin Press, 12 November 2009), a collection of essays on writing.

"An essay is an act of imagination. It still takes quite as much art as fiction" in ''The Guardian'', 21 November 2009, an essay on the novel.

"Generation Why?" in ''The New York Review of Books'', 25 November 2010, a review of ''The Social Network'', a film directed by David Fincher, and ''You Are Not a Gadget: A Manifesto'', by Jaron Lanier.

Notes

References

Tew, Philip. ''Zadie Smith''. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

Walters, Tracey (Ed.). ''Zadie Smith: Critical Essays.'' New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2008.

External links

"Girl Wonder" on Salon.com (2000).

"Only Connect", an interview with Zadie Smith by Joy Press of the Village Voice.

She's young, black, British - and the first publishing sensation of the millennium, an interview with the Guardian.

"White Knees", an essay on Smith's body of work by Wyatt Mason in the October 2005 issue of Harper's Magazine.

Smith article archive from ''The New York Review of Books''

Category:British novelists Category:British women writers Category:1975 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Category:People from Willesden Category:British Book Award winners Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Category:Harvard University people Category:Black British writers Category:British people of Jamaican descent

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name	Kurt Andersen
birth date	August 22, 1954
birth place	Omaha, Nebraska
death date
nationality	American
occupation	Novelist, radio host }}

Kurt Andersen (born August 22, 1954) is an American novelist who is also host of the Peabody-winning public radio program ''Studio 360'', a co-production between Public Radio International and WNYC. In 1986 with E. Graydon Carter he co-founded ''Spy'' magazine, which they sold in 1991; it continued publishing until 1998. Previously he was a writer and columnist for ''New York Magazine'', ("The Imperial City"), and ''The New Yorker'' ("The Culture Industry") and ''Time'' ("Spectator"), where he wrote on a wide variety of subjects, including the controversial Los Angeles coroner Thomas Noguchi. In 1999 he co-founded with Michael Hirschorn and Deanna Brown an online media news web site called Inside.com, which they sold to Primedia; Primedia closed the site in October 2001.

In 1996, Bill Reilly fired Andersen after two and a half years from his position as editor-in-chief at ''New York'', citing the publication's financial results. Andersen attributed the firing to his refusal to kill a story about a rivalry between investment bankers Felix Rohatyn and Steven Rattner that had upset Henry Kravis, a member of the firm's ownership group.

Andersen was born in Omaha, Nebraska and now lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Anne Kreamer and his two daughters, Kate and Lucy.

Literary works

Andersen is the author of two novels, ''Turn of the Century'' (Random House, 1999), which was a national bestseller and ''New York Times'' Notable Book of the year, and the ''New York Times'' bestseller ''Heyday'' (Random House, 2007), which won the Langum Prize for the best American historical fiction of 2007. He has also published a book of humorous essays, ''The Real Thing'' (Doubleday, 1980; Holt, 1982; Bison Press, 2008), about quintessentialism. His latest book is an essay called ''RESET: How This Crisis Can Restore Our Values and Renew America'' (Random House, 2009).

Along with Carter and George Kalogerakis he assembled a history and greatest-hits anthology of ''Spy'' called ''Spy: The Funny Years'', published in 2006 by Miramax Books.

In addition, he has co-authored two humor books, ''Tools of Power'' (Viking, 1980), a parody of self-help books on becoming successful, and ''Loose Lips'' (Simon & Schuster, 1995), an anthology of edited transcripts of real-life conversations involving celebrated people, and has contributed to many other books, such as ''Minus Equal Plus'' (Harry N. Abrams) and ''Mirth of a Nation'' (Perennial, 2000).

References

External links

Kurt Andersen's website

Studio 360

Rake magazine interview

Kurt Andersen's New York Magazine Archive

Video (with mp3 available) of conversation with Anderson and Will Wilkinson on Bloggingheads.tv

Category:American columnists Category:American magazine founders Category:American novelists Category:American talk radio hosts Category:Harvard Lampoon people Category:Harvard University alumni Category:People from Omaha, Nebraska Category:Public Radio International personalities Category:Writers from Nebraska Category:Writers from New York Category:1954 births Category:Living people Category:Time (magazine) people Category:American magazine staff writers

bat-smg:Kurts Andersens

This is a list of people whose names in English are commonly appended with the phrase "''the Great''", or who were called that or an equivalent phrase in their own language. Other languages have their own suffixes such as ''e Bozorg'' and ''e azam'' in Persian and Urdu respectively.

In Persia, the title "the Great" at first seems to be a colloquial version of the Old Persian title "Great King". This title was first used by the conqueror Cyrus II of Persia.

The Persian title was inherited by Alexander III of Macedon (336–323 BC) when he conquered the Persian Empire, and the epithet "Great" eventually became personally associated with him. The first reference (in a comedy by Plautus) assumes that everyone knew who "Alexander the Great" was; however, there is no earlier evidence that Alexander III of Macedon was called "''the Great''".

The early Seleucid kings, who succeeded Alexander in Persia, used "Great King" in local documents, but the title was most notably used for Antiochus the Great (223–187 BC).

Later rulers and commanders began to use the epithet "the Great" as a personal name, like the Roman general Pompey. Others received the surname retrospectively, like the Carthaginian Hanno and the Indian emperor Ashoka the Great. Once the surname gained currency, it was also used as an honorific surname for people without political careers, like the philosopher Albert the Great.

As there are no objective criteria for "greatness", the persistence of later generations in using the designation greatly varies. For example, Louis XIV of France was often referred to as "The Great" in his lifetime but is rarely called such nowadays, while Frederick II of Prussia is still called "The Great". A later Hohenzollern - Wilhelm I - was often called "The Great" in the time of his grandson Wilhelm II, but rarely later.

Rulers

Abbas I of Persia (1571–1629), Shah of Iran

Akbar (1542–1605), ruler of the Mughal Empire of South Asia, mainly India

Alain I of Albret (1440–1522), French aristocrat

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), King of Macedonia, Persia, Greece, Egypt, and all of Mesopotamia

Alexander I of Georgia (1386–1446), King of Georgia

Alfonso III of León (c. 848-910), King of León, Galicia and Asturias

Alfred the Great (848/849-899), King of Wessex

Antiochus III the Great (c. 241–187 BC), ruler of the Seleucid Empire

Ashoka the Great (c. 304–232 BC), Indian emperor of the Maurya dynasty

Ashot I of Iberia “the Great”(died 826/830), presiding prince of Iberia (modern Georgia),

Askia Mohammad I (c. 1442–1538), ruler of the Songhai Empire

Bhumibol Adulyadej (born 1927), King of Thailand

Bolesław I Chrobry (967-1025), sometimes called "the Great", first King of Poland

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the following section)

Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke (1736–1809), founder and ruler of the Rattanakosin Kingdom (in what is now Thailand)

Cnut the Great (c. 985 or 995-1035), King of Denmark, England, Norway and parts of Sweden

Casimir III the Great (1310–1370), King of Poland

Catherine the Great (1729–1796), Empress of Russia

Chandragupta II (reigned 375-413/415), also known as Vikramaditya, ruler of the Gupta empire in India

Charlemagne (died 814), King of the Franks and Emperor of the Romans

Chulalongkorn (1853–1910), King of Siam (now Thailand)

Chlothar II (584-629), King of Neustria and King of the Franks

Conrad, Margrave of Meissen (c. 1097-1157), Margrave of Meissen

Constantine I (c. 272-337), Roman emperor

Cyaxares the Great (c. 625-585 BC), third king of Media

Cyrus the Great (c. 600 BC or 576 BC–530 BC), founder and ruler of the Persian or Achaemenid Empire

Darius the Great (550 – 486 BC), third ruler of the Persian Empire

Devapala (died 850), ruler of the Pala Empire in the Indian subcontinent

Dionysius I, Greek tyrant of Syracuse

Ferdinand I of León and Castile (c. 1015–1065), King of León and Count of Castile

Frederick the Great (1712–1786), King of Prussia

Genghis Khan (1162?-1227), founder and Great Khan of the Mongol Empire

Gero (c. 900–965), ruler of Marca Geronis, a very large march in Europe

Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1594–1632), King of Sweden, founder of the Swedish Empire, and noted military leader

Gwanggaeto the Great, King of Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea

Hanno the Great, the name of three leaders of Carthage, in the 4th, 3rd, and 2nd centuries BC

Henry I, Duke of Burgundy (946–1002)

Henry IV of France (1553–1610), King of France and King of Navarre

Herod the Great (73/74 BC-4 BC), King of Judea

Hugh the Great (898-956), Duke of the Franks and Count of Paris

Hugh Magnus of France (1007–1025), co-King of France

Hugh I, Count of Vermandois (1057–1101)

Humphrey I de Bohun (died c. 1123), Anglo-Norman aristocrat

Ivan III of Russia (1440–1505), Tsar of Russia

John I of Portugal (1358–1433), King of Portugal and the Algarve

John II of Aragon (1398–1479), King of Aragon and, through his wife, King of Navarre

Justinian I (483-565), Byzantine Emperor

Kamehameha I (c. 1758-1819), first King of Hawai'i

Kanishka (died c. 127), ruler of the Kushan Empire in Central Asia and parts of India

Kvirike III of Kakheti (1010–1029), King of Kakheti in eastern Georgia

Kublai Khan (1215–1294), Mongol ruler in the 13th century and Emperor of China; founder of the Yuan Dynasty

Llywelyn the Great (c. 1172–1240), Prince of Gwynedd and de facto ruler of most of Wales

Louis I of Hungary (1326–1382), King of Hungary, Croatia and Poland

Mangrai the Great (1238–1317), Lanna, northern Thailand

Emperor Meiji (1852–1912), Emperor of Japan

Mircea I of Wallachia (1355–1418)

Mithridates II of Parthia (died 88 BC), ruler of the Parthian Empire (in present day Iran)

Mithridates VI of Pontus (134 BC–63 BC), ruler of Pontus and the Bosporan Kingdom

Mstislav I of Kiev (1076–1132), Grand Prince of Kievan Rus

Narai (1633–1688), King of Ayutthaya (in what is now modern Thailand)

Naresuan (1555–1605), King of Ayutthaya

Odo the Great (died c. 735), Duke of Aquitaine

Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (912-973)

K'inich Janaab' Pakal (603-683), ruler of the Mayan city-state of Palenque

Parakramabahu I of Polonnaruwa (1123–1186), King of Sri Lanka

Peter Krešimir IV of Croatia (died 1075), King of Croatia

Peter the Great (1672–1725), Tsar of Russia

Peter III of Aragon (1239–1285), King of Aragon and King of Sicily

Pompey (106 BC-48 BC), military and political leader of the late Roman Republic, rival of Julius Caesar

Radama I (1793–1828), first king of greater Madagascar

Raja Raja Chola I (c. 947-1014), Indian emperor of the Cholas.

Rajendra Chola I (reigned 1014–1044), Tamil King of India

Ramesses II (reigned 1279 BC – 1213 BC), considered the greatest pharaoh of Ancient Egypt

Ram Khamhaeng (around 1237 to 1247-1298), King of Sukhothai (in present day Thailand)

Ramon Berenguer III, Count of Barcelona (1082–1131), also Count of Provence and various other counties

Rhodri the Great (c. 820–878), King of Gwynedd (in present day Wales)

Roman the Great (after 1160-1205), Grand Prince of Kiev

Saladin (c. 1138-1193), Kurdish Sultan of Egypt and Syria, founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, and victor over the Crusaders

Samudragupta (c. 335–375), ruler of the Gupta empire in the Indian subcontinent

Sancho III of Navarre (c. 992-1035), King of Kingdom of Navarre

Sargon of Akkad (died c. 2215 BC), ruler of the Akkadian Empire

Sejong the Great (1397–1450), Korean king

Shapur II (309-379), king of the Sassanid Empire, Persia

Simeon I of Bulgaria (864/865-927), ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire

Stephen III of Moldavia (1433–1504), Prince of Moldavia (Romania)

Stephen Uroš IV Dušan of Serbia (c. 1308-1355), King of Serbia and Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks

Taksin (1734–1782), King of the Thonburi Kingdom (Thailand)

Timur (1336–1405), better known as Tamerlane, founder of the Timurid Dynasty

Theobald II, Count of Champagne (1090–1151), Count of Blois and of Chartres as Theobald IV, Count of Champagne and of Brie

Theodoric the Great (454-526), King of the Ostrogoths, regent of the Visigoths and a viceroy of the Byzantine Empire

Theodosius I (347-395), Roman emperor

Tigranes the Great (140-55 BC), Emperor of Armenia

Tiridates III of Armenia (285-339), King of Armenia

Umar (c. 586 to 590–644), second caliph of the Muslim Empire

Valdemar I of Denmark (1131–1182), King of Denmark

Valentinian I (364-375), Roman Emperor

Vladimir I of Kiev (c. 958-1015), ruler of Kievan Rus

Vytautas (c. 1350-1430), archduke of the Lithuanian Grand Duchy

William I, Count of Burgundy (1020–1087), Count of Burgandy and Mâcon

William V, Duke of Aquitaine (969-1030), also Count of Poitou

Xerxes I (519-465 BC), King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire (Persia)

Yu the Great (c. 2200-2100 BC), legendary ruler in ancient China

Religious figures

Abraham the Great of Kashkar (ca. 492-586), monk and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East

Abraham Kidunaia (died c. 366, hermit, priest, and Christian saint of Mesopotamia

Albertus Magnus (1193/1206–1280), medieval German philosopher and theologian

Anthony the Great (c. 251–356), early Christian saint of Egypt

Babai the Great (c. 551–628), Assyrian church leader

Basil of Caesarea (330-379), Greek bishop and theologian

Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne and Duke of Lotharingia (also listed in the previous section)

Euthymius the Great (377-473), abbot and Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox saint

Gertrude the Great (1256-c. 1302), German Benedictine, mystic, theologian and Roman Catholic saint

Pope Gregory I (c. 540-604)

Hiyya the Great, 3rd-century rabbi, Palestine

Pope John Paul II (1920–2005)

Pope Leo I (c. 391 or 400-461)

Macarius of Egypt (c. 300-391), Egyptian hermit

Pope Nicholas I (c. 800-867)

Photius I of Constantinople (c. 810–c. 893), Eastern Orthodox saint and Patriarch of Constantinople

William of Maleval (died 1157), founder of the Catholic congregation of Williamites

Other

Beli Mawr, a figure in medieval Welsh literature and genealogies

Emmy the Great, folk singer

Matteo Rosso the Great, Roman politician and father of Pope Nicholas III

Prokop the Great, Hussite general in Bohemia

See also

Epithet

List of monarchs by nickname

List of nicknames of European Royalty and Nobility: G-I

James, son of Zebedee, also known as James the Greater, one of the twelve apostles of Jesus

Ajax (mythology), called Ajax the Greater

Notes

Category:Monarchs Great, List of people known as The Category:Greatest Nationals Category:Epithets

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name	David Foster Wallace
birth date	February 21, 1962
birth place	Ithaca, New York
death date	September 12, 2008
death place	Claremont, California
occupation	Novelist, short story writer, essayist, college professor
nationality	United States
period	1987–2008
genre	Literary fiction, nonfiction
movement	Postmodern literature, hysterical realism, metamodernism
notableworks	''Infinite Jest''
influences	Don Delillo, William Gaddis, Cynthia Ozick, Manuel Puig, David Lynch
influenced	Neal Stephenson
website	}}

David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008) was an American author of novels, essays, and short stories, and a professor at Pomona College in Claremont, California. He was widely known for his 1996 novel ''Infinite Jest'', which ''Time'' included in its All-Time 100 Greatest Novels list (covering the period 1923–2006).

''Los Angeles Times'' book editor David Ulin called Wallace "one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years".

Wallace's unfinished novel, ''The Pale King'', was published in 2011. A biography of Wallace by D. T. Max is projected for publication in 2012.

Biography

Personal

Wallace was born in Ithaca, New York, to James Donald Wallace and Sally Foster Wallace. In his early childhood, Wallace lived in Champaign, Illinois. In fourth grade, he moved to Urbana and attended Yankee Ridge school and Urbana High School. As an adolescent, Wallace was a regionally ranked junior tennis player.

He attended his father's alma mater, Amherst College, and majored in English and philosophy, with a focus on modal logic and mathematics. His philosophy senior thesis on modal logic, titled ''Richard Taylor's 'Fatalism' and the Semantics of Physical Modality'' (described in James Ryerson's 2008 ''New York Times'' essay "Consider the Philosopher") was awarded the Gail Kennedy Memorial Prize. His other senior thesis, in English, would later become his first novel. Wallace graduated ''summa cum laude'' for both theses in 1985, and in 1987 received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Arizona.

Though he made little mention of it in his writing, Wallace belonged to a church wherever he lived.

Family

Wallace's father was James D. Wallace, who accepted a teaching job at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the fall of 1962 after finishing his graduate course work in philosophy at Cornell University. He received his PhD from Cornell in 1963 and is now Emeritus Professor at Urbana-Champaign. Wallace's mother, Sally Foster Wallace, attended graduate school in English Composition at the University of Illinois and became a professor of English at Parkland College—a community college in Champaign—where she won a national Professor of the Year award in 1996. Wallace's younger sister, Amy Wallace Havens of Tucson, Arizona, has practiced law since 2005.

In the early 1990s, Wallace had a relationship with the poet and memoirist Mary Karr (''The Liars' Club''). Wallace married painter Karen L. Green on December 27, 2004. Dogs played an important role in Wallace's life; he was very close to his two dogs, Bella and Warner, had spoken of opening a dog shelter, and according to Jonathan Franzen "had a predilection for dogs who'd been abused, and [were] unlikely to find other owners who were going to be patient enough for them."

Death

Wallace committed suicide by hanging himself on September 12, 2008. In an interview with ''The New York Times'', Wallace's father reported that Wallace had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive. When he experienced severe side effects from the medication, Wallace attempted to wean himself from his primary antidepressant, phenelzine. On his doctor's advice, Wallace stopped taking the medication in June 2007, and the depression returned. Wallace received other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy. When he returned to phenelzine, he found it had lost its effectiveness. In the months before his death, his depression became severe.

Numerous gatherings were held to honor Wallace after his death, including memorial services at Pomona College, Amherst College, University of Arizona, and on October 23, 2008, at NYU—the latter with speakers including his sister, Amy Wallace Havens; his agent, Bonnie Nadell; Gerry Howard, the editor of his first two books; Colin Harrison, editor at ''Harper's Magazine''; Michael Pietsch, the editor of ''Infinite Jest'' and Wallace's later work; Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at ''The New Yorker''; as well as authors Don DeLillo, Zadie Smith, George Saunders, Mark Costello, Donald Antrim, and Jonathan Franzen.

Writing and other media

Career

Wallace's first novel, 1987's ''The Broom of the System'', garnered national attention and critical praise. Caryn James of ''The New York Times'' called it a successful "manic, human, flawed extravaganza", "emerging straight from the excessive tradition of Stanley Elkin's ''Franchiser'', Thomas Pynchon's ''V.'', John Irving's ''World According to Garp''." Wallace moved to Boston, Massachusetts, for graduate school in philosophy at Harvard University, but soon abandoned it. In 1991 he began teaching literature as an adjunct professor at Emerson College in Boston.

In 1992, at the behest of colleague and supporter Steven Moore, Wallace applied for and won a position in the English department at Illinois State University. He had begun work on his second novel, ''Infinite Jest'', in 1991, and submitted a draft to his editor in December 1993. After the publication of excerpts throughout 1995, the book was published in 1996.

Wallace published short fiction in ''Might'', ''GQ'', ''Playboy'', ''The Paris Review'', ''Harper's Magazine'', ''Mid-American Review'', ''Conjunctions'', ''Esquire'', ''Open City'', ''Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern'', ''The New Yorker'', and ''Science''.

In 1997, Wallace received a MacArthur Fellowship, as well as the Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, awarded by editors of ''The Paris Review'' for one of the stories in ''Brief Interviews''—"Brief Interviews with Hideous Men #6"—which had appeared in the magazine.

In 2002, he moved to Claremont, California, to become the first Roy E. Disney Professor of Creative Writing and Professor of English at Pomona College. He taught one or two undergraduate courses per semester, and focused on his writing.

In May 2005, Wallace delivered the commencement address to the graduating class at Kenyon College. The speech was published as a book in 2009 under the title ''This Is Water''.

Bonnie Nadell was Wallace's literary agent through his entire career. Michael Pietsch was his editor on ''Infinite Jest''.

In March 2009, Little, Brown and Company announced that it would publish the manuscript of an unfinished novel, ''The Pale King'', that Wallace was working on at the time of his death. ''The Pale King'' was pieced together by editor Michael Pietsch from pages and notes the author left behind. Several excerpts from it were published in the ''New Yorker'' and other magazines. ''The Pale King'' was published on April 15, 2011, and received generally positive reviews.

In March 2010, it was announced that Wallace's personal papers and archives – drafts of books, stories, essays, poems, letters, and research, including the handwritten notes for ''Infinite Jest'' – had been purchased by the University of Texas at Austin and will reside at the University's Harry Ransom Center.

Themes and styles

Wallace's fiction is often concerned with irony. His essay "E Unibus Pluram: Television and U.S. Fiction", originally published in the small-circulation ''Review of Contemporary Fiction'' in 1993, proposes that television has an ironic influence on fiction writing, and urges literary authors to eschew TV's shallow rebelliousness: "I want to convince you that irony, poker-faced silence, and fear of ridicule are distinctive of those features of contemporary U.S. culture (of which cutting-edge fiction is a part) that enjoy any significant relation to the television whose weird pretty hand has my generation by the throat. I'm going to argue that irony and ridicule are entertaining and effective, and that at the same time they are agents of a great despair and stasis in U.S. culture, and that for aspiring fictionists they pose terrifically vexing problems". Wallace used many forms of irony, but focused on individuals' continued longing for earnest, unself-conscious experience and communication in a media-saturated society. Literary critic Adam Kirsch said that Wallace's "self-conscious earnestness" and "hostility to irony defined a literary generation."

Wallace's novels often combine various writing modes or voices, and incorporate jargon and vocabulary (sometimes invented) from a wide variety of fields. His writing featured self-generated abbreviations and acronyms, long multi-clause sentences, and a notable use of explanatory footnotes and endnotes—often nearly as expansive as the text proper. He used endnotes extensively in ''Infinite Jest'' and footnotes in "Octet" as well as in the great majority of his nonfiction after 1996. On the ''Charlie Rose'' show in 1997, Wallace claimed that the notes were used to disrupt the linearity of the narrative, to reflect his perception of reality without jumbling the entire structure. He suggested that he could have instead jumbled up the sentences, "but then no one would read it."

According to Wallace, "fiction’s about what it is to be a fucking human being," and he expressed a desire to write "morally passionate, passionately moral fiction" that could help readers "become less alone inside". In his Kenyon College commencement address, he describes the human condition of daily crises and chronic disillusionment and warns against solipsism, invoking compassion, mindfulness, and existentialism:

Nonfiction work

Wallace covered Senator John McCain's 2000 presidential campaign and had been commissioned shortly before his death to write a story about Barack Obama. He wrote about the September 11 attacks for ''Rolling Stone''; cruise ships (in what became the title essay of his first nonfiction book), state fairs, and tornadoes for ''Harper's Magazine''; the US Open tournament for ''TENNIS Magazine''; the director David Lynch and the pornography industry for ''Premiere'' magazine; the tennis player Michael Joyce for ''Esquire''; the special-effects film industry for Waterstone's magazine; conservative talk radio host John Ziegler for ''The Atlantic Monthly''; and a Maine lobster festival for ''Gourmet'' magazine. He also reviewed books in several genres for the ''Los Angeles Times'', ''The Washington Post'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Philadelphia Inquirer''. In the November 2007 issue of ''The Atlantic'', which commemorated the magazine's 150th anniversary, Wallace was among the authors, artists, politicians and others who wrote short pieces on "the future of the American idea".

Other media

Twelve of the interviews from ''Brief Interviews With Hideous Men'' were adapted into a stage play in 2000, the first theatrical adaptation of Wallace's work. The play, ''Hideous Men'', adapted and directed by Dylan McCullough, premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival in August 2000.

A filmed adaptation of ''Brief Interviews'', directed by John Krasinski, was released in 2009 and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. The film stars Julianne Nicholson and an ensemble cast including Christopher Meloni, Rashida Jones, Timothy Hutton, Josh Charles, Will Forte and Corey Stoll.

The short story "Tri-Stan: I Sold Sissee Nar to Ecko" from ''Brief Interviews With Hideous Men'' was adapted by composer Eric Moe into a 50-minute operatic piece, to be performed with accompanying video projections. The piece was described as having "subversively inscribed classical music into pop culture", but received tepid reviews overall.

Awards

Inclusion of "Good Old Neon" in ''The O. Henry Prize Stories 2002''

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, 1997–2002

Lannan Foundation Residency Fellow, July–August 2000

Named to Usage Panel, ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' 4th Edition et seq., 1999

Inclusion of "The Depressed Person" in Prize Stories 1999: The O. Henry Awards

Illinois State University, Outstanding University Researcher, 1998 and 1999

Aga Khan Prize for Fiction for the story "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men #6", 1997

''Time'' magazine's Best Books of the Year (Fiction), 1996

Salon Book Award (Fiction), 1996

Lannan Literary Award (Fiction), 1996

Inclusion of "Here and There" in Prize Stories 1989: The O. Henry Awards

Whiting Writers' Award, 1987

Selected bibliography

Novels

''The Broom of the System'' (1987)

''Infinite Jest'' (1996)

''The Pale King'' (2011) (unfinished)

Short story collections

''Girl with Curious Hair'' (1989) (published in Europe as ''Westward the Course of the Empire Takes Its Way'')

''Brief Interviews with Hideous Men'' (1999)

''Oblivion: Stories'' (2004)

Nonfiction

''Signifying Rappers: Rap and Race In the Urban Present'' (1990), coauthored with Mark Costello

''A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again'' (essays) (1997)

''Up, Simba!'' (2000)

''Everything and More'' (2003)

''Consider the Lobster'' (essays) (2005)

''McCain's Promise: Aboard the Straight Talk Express with John McCain and a Whole Bunch of Actual Reporters, Thinking About Hope'' (paperback reprint of ''Up, Simba!'') (2008)

''This Is Water'' (2009)

''Fate, Time, and Language: An Essay on Free Will,'' Eds. S. Cahn and M. Eckert, Columbia University Press (2010).

Further reading

Benzon, Kiki. "Darkness Legible, Unquiet Lines: Mood Disorders in the Fiction of David Foster Wallace." ''Creativity, Madness and Civilization.'' Ed. Richard Pine. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007: 187–198.

Boswell, Marshall. ''Understanding David Foster Wallace''. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. ISBN 1-57003-517-2

Bresnan, Mark. "The Work of Play in David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 50:1 (2008), 51–68.

Burn, Stephen. "Generational Succession and a Source for the Title of David Foster Wallace's ''The Broom of the System''." ''Notes on Contemporary Literature'' 33.2 (2003), 9–11.

Burn, Stephen. ''David Foster Wallace's'' Infinite Jest'': A Reader's Guide''. New York, London: Continuum, 2003 (= Continuum Contemporaries) ISBN 0-8264-1477-X

Carlisle, Greg. "Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." Austin, L.A.: Sideshow Media Group Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-9761465-3-7

Cioffi, Frank Louis. "An Anguish Becomes Thing: Narrative as Performance in David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Narrative'' 8.2 (2000), 161–181.

Delfino, Andrew Steven. "Becoming the New Man in Post-Postmodernist Fiction: Portrayals of Masculinities in David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest'' and Chuck Palahniuk's ''Fight Club''. MA Thesis, Georgia State University.

Dowling, William, and Bell, Robert. A Reader's Companion to Infinite Jest. Xlibris, 2004. ISBN 1-4134-8446-8 ()

Esposito, Scott, et al. Who Was David Foster Wallace? A Symposium on the Writing of David Foster Wallace

Ewijk, Petrus van. "'I' and the 'Other': The relevance of Wittgenstein, Buber and Levinas for an understanding of AA's Recovery Program in David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''English Text Construction'' 2.1 (2009), 132–145.

Goerlandt, Iannis and Luc Herman. "David Foster Wallace." ''Post-war Literatures in English: A Lexicon of Contemporary Authors'' 56 (2004), 1–16; A1-2, B1-2.

Goerlandt, Iannis. "Fußnoten und Performativität bei David Foster Wallace. Fallstudien." ''Am Rande bemerkt. Anmerkungspraktiken in literarischen Texten.'' Ed. Bernhard Metz & Sabine Zubarik. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos, 2008: 387–408.

Goerlandt, Iannis. "'Put the book down and slowly walk away': Irony and David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 47.3 (2006), 309–328.

Goerlandt, Iannis. "'Still steaming as its many arms extended': Pain in David Foster Wallace's ''Incarnations of Burned Children''." ''Sprachkunst'' 37.2 (2006), 297–308.

Harris, Jan Ll.'Addiction and the Societies of Control: David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest'''', paper delivered at ''Figuring Addictions/Rethinking Consumption'' conference, Institute for Cultural Research, Lancaster University, April 4–5, 2002

Harris, Michael. "A Sometimes Funny Book Supposedly about Infinity: A Review of ''Everything and More''." ''Notices of the AMS'' 51.6 (2004), 632–638. (full pdf-text)

Holland, Mary K. "'The Art's Heart's Purpose': Braving the Narcissistic Loop of David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 47.3 (2006), 218–242.

Jacobs, Tim. "The Fight: Considering David Foster Wallace Considering You". ''Rain Taxi Review of Books.'' Online Edition, Part Two. Winter 2009.

Jacobs, Timothy. "The Brothers Incandenza: Translating Ideology in Fyodor Dostoevsky's ''The Brothers Karamazov'' and David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Contemporary Literary Criticism'' Vol. 271. Ed. Jeffrey Hunter. New York: Gale, 2009.

Jacobs, Timothy. "The Brothers Incandenza: Translating Ideology in Fyodor Dostoevsky's ''The Brothers Karamazov'' and David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Texas Studies in Literature and Language'' 49.3 (2007): 265–292.

Jacobs, Timothy. "American Touchstone: The Idea of Order in Gerard Manley Hopkins and David Foster Wallace." ''Comparative Literature Studies'' 38.3 (2001): 215–231.

Jacobs, Timothy. "David Foster Wallace's ''The Broom of the System''." Ed. Alan Hedblad. ''Beacham's Encyclopedia of Popular Fiction''. Detroit: Gale Research Press, 2001. 41–50.

Jacobs, Timothy. "David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''The Explicator'' 58.3 (2000): 172–175.

Kelly, Adam. "David Foster Wallace: the Death of the Author and the Birth of a Discipline." ''Irish Journal of American Studies Online'' 2 (2010). Link.

LeClair, Tom. "The Prodigious Fiction of Richard Powers, William T. Vollmann, and David Foster Wallace." ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 38.1 (1996), 12–37.

Lipsky, David. ''Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself: A Road Trip with David Foster Wallace''. New York: Broadway, 2010.

Mason, Wyatt. "Don't like it? You don't have to play." ''London Review of Books'' 26.22 (2004). http://www.lrb.co.uk/v26/n22/maso02_.html

Morris, David. "Lived Time and Absolute Knowing: Habit and Addiction from ''Infinite Jest'' to the ''Phenomenology of Spirit''." ''Clio: A Journal of Literature, History and the Philosophy of History'' 30 (2001), 375–415.

Nichols, Catherine. "Dialogizing Postmodern Carnival: David Foster Wallace's ''Infinite Jest''." ''Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction'' 43.1 (2001), 3–16.

Rother, James. "Reading and Riding the Post-Scientific Wave. The Shorter Fiction of David Foster Wallace." ''Review of Contemporary Fiction'' 13.2 (1993), 216–234. ISBN 1-56478-123-2

Tysdal, Dan. "Inarticulation and the Figure of Enjoyment: Raymond Carver's Minimalism Meets David Foster Wallace's 'A Radically Condensed History of Postindustrial Life.'" ''Wascana Review of Contemporary Poetry and Short Fiction'' 38.1 (2003), 66–83.

See also

List of 20th-century writers

References

External links

Sources

Reprint of ''Consider the Lobster'', 2004 essay on lobsters for Gourmet magazine

New York Times "Play Magazine" article on Roger Federer, "Federer as Religious Experience"

Wallace pieces for ''Harper's Magazine''

Reprint of ''Tense Present: Democracy, English, and the Wars over Usage'', 2001 essay for ''Harper's'' on usage dictionaries and Standard Written English

Biographical

"An Appraisal: Writer Mapped the Mythic and the Mundane", by Michiko Kakutani, ''The New York Times'', September 14, 2008

"On David Foster Wallace", by Dustin Luke Nelson, from ''Guernica Magazine'', September 14, 2008.

Modernism/modernity 16:1 (January 2009), "In Memoriam David Foster Wallace," 1–24. Featuring tributes from Steven Moore, Dave Eggers, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Marshall Boswell, Michael North, Stephen J. Burn, and Brendan Beirne.

"David Foster Wallace, 1962–2008", by David Gates, ''Newsweek'', September 14, 2008.

"The Unfinished" by D.T. Max, The New Yorker, March 9, 2009.

"Everything & More: The Work of David Foster Wallace" by Malcolm Knox, The Monthly November, 2008.

Wyatt Mason: "Smarter than You Think" The New York Review of Books

"David Foster Wallace and the Velveteen Rabbit" Identity Theory, August, 2011.

Interviews

Charlie Rose Show: An interview with Wallace following the publication of Infinite Jest and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Mar 27, 1997

Charlie Rose Show: A roundtable discussion on fiction with Wallace, Jonathan Franzen and Mark Leyner, May 17, 1996

This American Life Episode 160 broadcast May 19, 2000 "Character Assassination" Act 2 'Sonny Takes a Fall' – (19 minute radio where David Foster Wallace "reports on a turning point in 2000's Presidential primaries: the moment when John McCain failed to respond well to an attack by George Bush". Description of broadcast from thislife.org)

"David Foster Wallace: A Profile" – (by Bill Katovsky)

David Foster Wallace on Bookworm, Link to a set of lengthy radio interviews David Foster Wallace gave to KCRW's Bookworm over a period of ten years. The first is from April 11, 1996; the last March 2, 2006.

Portals

THE HOWLING FANTODS! – David Foster Wallace: News, Info, Links

''Infinite Jest'' Wiki

The Infinite Summer project

''Pomona College's David Foster Wallace Wiki

Fan art tribute

FOREVER DFW – A collection of art and other material in memory of David Foster Wallace

''A Failed Entertainment'': Film and art exhibit based on the James O. Incandenza Filmography from ''Infinite Jest''

Incandenza Filmography interpretations and other ''Infinite Jest''-inspired works online: "Infinite Jest IV", "Zero Gravity Tea Ceremony", "The Medusa v. The Odalisque", "The Cold Majesty of the Numb", "Kinds of Light", "Baby Pictures of Famous Dicatators 2: Eschatong", "Good-Looking Men In Small Clever Rooms That Utilize Every Centimeter Of Available Space With Mind-Boggling Efficiency", "Cage - Planar Version", "Various Small Flames", "The Exhibit and the Cage", "Après-Garde Film", "For Infinite Jest", "Sixty Minutes More or Less with Madame Psychosis", "Hal at Age 4", "Poor Yorick Entertainment" poster art

Category:American Christians Category:American essayists Category:American novelists Category:American short story writers Category:Amherst College alumni Category:Illinois State University faculty Category:MacArthur Fellows Category:People from California Category:People from Champaign County, Illinois Category:People from Ithaca, New York Category:Pomona College faculty Category:Postmodern writers Category:Suicides by hanging in California Category:University of Arizona alumni Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Illinois Category:Writers from New York Category:Writers who committed suicide Category:1962 births Category:2008 deaths

ca:David Foster Wallace da:David Foster Wallace de:David Foster Wallace es:David Foster Wallace fa:دیوید فاستر والاس fr:David Foster Wallace it:David Foster Wallace he:דייוויד פוסטר וולאס la:David Foster Wallace nl:David Foster Wallace ja:デヴィッド・フォスター・ウォレス no:David Foster Wallace pms:David Foster Wallace pl:David Foster Wallace pt:David Foster Wallace ru:Уоллес, Дэвид Фостер sh:David Foster Wallace fi:David Foster Wallace sv:David Foster Wallace tr:David Foster Wallace

name	David Foster
background	non_performing_personnel
birth name	David Walter Foster
birth date	November 01, 1949
birth place	Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
instrument	Piano, keyboards, French horn, synthesizer
genre	Pop, R&B;, classical, gospel
occupation	Record producer, musician, composer, songwriter, arranger
years active	1971–present
label	Reprise/143, Atlantic
associated acts	Skylark, Attitudes, Airplay, Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks
website	davidfoster.com }}

David Walter Foster, OC, OBC (born November 1, 1949), is a Canadian musician, record producer, composer, singer, songwriter, and arranger, noted for discovering singers such as Michael Bublé, Josh Groban, and Charice Pempengco; and for producing some of the most successful artists in the world.

Career

Throughout his career, he has produced recordings for a wide range of musical artists, including Bryan Adams, Tamia, Christina Aguilera, The Bee Gees, Andrea Bocelli, Boz Scaggs, Mariah Carey, Chicago, Destiny's Child, Neil Diamond, Céline Dion, Earth Wind and Fire, Gloria Estefan, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Chaka Khan, Beyonce Knowles, Kenny Loggins, Madonna, Olivia Newton-John, Nsync, Charice Pempengco, Prince, Kenny Rogers, Barbra Streisand, Donna Summer, Shania Twain, and Jackie Evancho.

Foster was a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark discovered by Eirik Wangberg. The band's song “Wildflower” was a top ten hit in 1973.

Together with Jay Graydon he formed the band Airplay, whose album of the same name is often labeled the most important within the Westcoast AOR genre.

He produced debut albums for The Corrs, Michael Bublé, Renee Olstead and Josh Groban, which were released under his own record label, 143 Records, and distributed through Warner Music. Foster helped launch Kevin Sharp's career after the two met through the Make-A-Wish Foundation and he produced David Hayes singing a song by composed by Ed Scheid and Laramy Smith title "Friend".

In 1985, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine named Foster the "master of ... bombastic pop kitsch." That year, Foster composed the score for the film ''St. Elmo's Fire'', including "Love Theme from St. Elmo's Fire" which hit No. 15 in US pop charts (with a remake of a song titled "For just a moment" with vocals by Amy Holland and Donny Gerrard). Another song from the film, "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)", recorded by John Parr hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 on September 7, 1985. The following years, Foster continued turning out occasional film scores, including the Michael J. Fox comedy ''The Secret of My Success'' and the Jodie Foster-Mark Harmon drama ''Stealing Home'', both of which spawned soundtrack albums with prominent Foster-penned contributions. He collaborated with then-wife Linda Thompson on the song "I Have Nothing", sung by Whitney Houston in the 1992 film ''The Bodyguard''. The couple were nominated for a Grammy Award and an Academy Award for Best Song for the song.

He produced Japanese singer Seiko Matsuda's 1988 album "Citron", also arranging and co-writing all the songs on the album, including the number one single "Marrakech".

In 1995 Foster signed a deal with Warner Brothers that enabled him to set up his own boutique label, 143 Records, as a joint venture with Warner. Foster gave the responsibility for running the label to then manager Brian Avnet. One of the label's first signing was little known Irish folk-rock band The Corrs, for whom he produced their debut album. By 1997 Foster had come to the realisation that, in the American market at least, "logo labels" like 143 were in a "bad spot" and as a result Foster sold the label back to Warner and became senior vice-president at the corporation.

Foster, along with Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, composed "The Power of the Dream" as the official song of the 1996 Summer Olympics, with then-wife Thompson providing the lyrics (sung by Céline Dion). He also composed "Winter Games", the theme song for 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Alberta. "Winter Games" is the soundtrack for a fountain show at the Bellagio resort in Las Vegas as well as a fountain show at Sea World Orlando. Also in 2001, he collaborated with Lara Fabian and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra to record the Canadian national anthem, "O Canada", for an English version, a French version, and a bilingual (French/English) version, for a promotion of the Government of Canada. In 2003, Foster won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics for ''The Concert for World Children's Day''. His song "I Will Be There With You" (sung with Katharine McPhee) is being used by Japan Airlines to promote the introduction of new aircraft to its US flights.

During the 1990s he often performed acts with San Diego vocalist Warren Wiebe, whom he had discovered in the restroom of a hotel bar in 1987. In 1994 he had Wiebe put together a band called Millennium featuring Nita Whitaker and a few session vocalists, but the deal with Foster's record company led to the group's demise. Wiebe was Foster's "mouth" on many of his videos but committed suicide before he could release a solo album.

In 2005, record producer David Foster, his daughter Amy Foster-Gillies and Knowles wrote "Stand Up For Love" as the anthem to the World Children's Day, an annual worldwide event to raise awareness and funds for children causes. Over the past three years, more than $50 million has been raised to benefit Ronald McDonald House Charities and other children's organizations. Destiny's Child lent their voices and support as global ambassadors for the 2005 program.

In 2009 it was revealed that Foster had worked with songwriter Diane Warren to produce records for Whitney Houston's upcoming album. It was then announced that her comeback single would be the Foster-produced "I Didn't Know My Own Strength".

He recently collaborated with American Idol finalist Michael Johns on the re-write of his popular 1980s hit "St Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)."

In July 2011, it was announced that Foster would take the helm of Verve Records under Universal Music and shift the focus of the label from jazz to adult contemporary pop.

Television appearances

In early 1992, the national television station RCTI, David Foster came to Indonesia for the TV show ''David Foster's Twilight Orchestra''.

In early 2001, Foster was in ''Popstars'', a reality series that aired on WB. The series aimed at coming up with the next girl group and eventually became Eden's Crush (featuring Nicole Scherzinger). David Foster and Linda Thompson wrote and produced several songs on their album.

Foster's home life was featured in a Fox staged reality TV show called ''The Princes of Malibu'', in which he attempts to force his two spoiled stepsons, Brandon and Brody Jenner (the children of Thompson and Olympian Bruce Jenner), to straighten their lives up and earn their own way.

In late April 2005, Foster appeared as a special guest on both ''American Idol'' (as a mentor) and ''Nashville Star'' (as a judge) two weeks apart. He was also a judge on ''Celebrity Duets'', a FOX TV show, and appeared on ''Star Tomorrow'', where auditions were held in Los Angeles and New York for undiscovered talent. It aired only one [July 31, 2006] episode on NBC.

In July 2006, Foster made a brief appearance on ''The View'' as Star Jones's vocal coach. In August 2006, he was the musical director for JCPenney Jam: The Concert For American Kids], which aired on CBS and was later released in CD/DVD format. In November 2007, Foster appeared in Oprah's annual "Favorite Things" episode, performing with Josh Groban.

In September 2008, singer Charice joined Foster on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' with Celine Dion via satellite; and later on October 31, he and Andrea Bocelli appeared on ''Oprah'' again together, where he stated that Bocelli was his "favorite singer on the planet".

In December 2008, Foster was featured in a PBS special titled ''Hitman David Foster & Friends'', a concert featuring live performances by Foster and numerous other performers. Foster was also featured in ''Under the Desert Sky'' in 2006, ''Vivere Live in Tuscany'' in 2007, and the ''My Christmas Special'', in 2009, Andrea Bocelli's three latest PBS Specials. Bocelli also performed during Foster's Hitman special.

In late 2009, he also appeared on a number of TV shows to promote Bocelli's ''My Christmas'' album, which he produced, including ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'', ''Dr. Phil'', ''The Early Show'' and ''Fox & Friends''. He also made a number of appearances in 2010 with Filipino singer Charice, to promote her album.

Personal life

Foster has been married three times, has five biological daughters, an ex-stepdaughter, and two ex-stepsons. His first marriage was to singer/writer B.J. Cook. She already had a daughter, Tamre Winger, whom he raised. Together, B.J. Cook and Foster had one daughter, Amy Foster (b. July 29, 1973), a songwriter who has collaborated with classic artists such as Andrea Bocelli, Michael Bublé, and Josh Groban.

His second wife was model Rebecca Dyer. They had three daughters: Sara Foster (b. August 24, 1981), Erin Foster (b. August 24, 1983), and Jordan Foster (b. September 1986). As of May 2008, Sara was engaged to tennis player Tommy Haas, and on November 14, 2010, Haas and Foster welcomed a baby girl in Santa Monica, CA. Foster also has a daughter, Allison Jones (b. April 6, 1970), from a previous relationship.

Foster married third wife Linda Thompson on June 27, 1991. The two became a songwriting team, collaborating on several songs including "I Have Nothing," performed by Whitney Houston in The Bodyguard, and "Grown-Up Christmas List." Thompson filed for divorce Monday July 11, 2005, the day after her short-lived reality series, ''The Princes of Malibu'' premiered. Thompson is the mother of Brody Jenner and Brandon Jenner from her previous marriage to former Olympian Bruce Jenner.

Foster's sister, producer Jaymes Foster, is the mother of Clay Aiken's son Parker Foster Aiken.

David's cousin, Billy Foster, died in a race car accident in 1967.

In 1992, David Foster was driving on the Pacific Coast Highway when his car struck actor Ben Vereen, who had been on the road because he had crashed his car and was in a daze. Despite being thrown 90 feet, Vereen survived. Vereen also went on record to say that it probably saved his life: he had a serious drinking problem caused by the death of his daughter.

Discography

In addition to the numerous albums he has produced, the following are Foster's own solo or band works:

1972: ''Skylark'' (self-titled)

1974: ''2'' Skylark

1976: ''Attitudes'' (self-titled)

1977: ''Good News'' Attitudes

1980: ''Airplay'' (self-titled)

1983: ''The Best of Me''

1986: ''David Foster'' (self-titled)

1988: ''The Symphony Sessions''

1989: ''Time Passing''

1990: ''River of Love''

1991: ''Rechordings''

1992: ''A Touch Of David Foster''

1993: ''The Christmas Album''

1994: ''Love Lights The World''

2000: ''The Best Of Me: A Collection of David Foster’s Greatest Works''

2001: ''O Canada'' (with Lara Fabian)

2002: ''Love Stories''

2003: ''Teko’s Theme - with Nita Whitaker''

2004: ''The Best Of Me - Original Recording Remastered''

2008: ''Hitman: David Foster and Friends''

2010: ''The Magic of David Foster & Friends''

2011: ''Hitman Returns: David Foster and Friends''

Singles

1985: "Love Theme From St. Elmo's Fire (For Just a Moment)" (US #15)

1986: "The Best of Me" (Duet with Olivia Newton-John) (US #80)

1988: "Winter Games (Can't You Feel It)" - Official theme song for the Calgary 1988 Winter Olympics (US #85)

Awards and honors

In 1995, Foster became the recipient of the Order of British Columbia, the highest honour awarded in his native province of British Columbia. Foster became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2006.

Foster has won 15 Grammy Awards (three for producer of the year) and has been nominated a total of 46 times.

He has been nominated three times for an Academy Award for Best Song and won the 1999 Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song for the song “The Prayer” (sung by Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion) from the film ''Quest for Camelot''. He has been named BMI's "Songwriter of the Year". In June 2010, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

See also

Music of Canada

Canadian Music Hall of Fame

List of Canadian composers

References

Further reading

External links

Official website

David Foster on ''The Hour''

Category:Canadian expatriate musicians in the United States Category:Canadian pop musicians Category:Canadian record producers Category:Fellows of the Royal Conservatory of Music Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Golden Globe Award winning musicians Category:Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Canadian humanitarians Category:Emmy Award winners Category:Juno Award winners Category:Members of the Order of British Columbia Category:Officers of the Order of Canada Category:People from Victoria, British Columbia Category:1949 births Category:Living people

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