David Foster Wallace, whose prodigiously observant, exuberantly plotted, grammatically and etymologically challenging, philosophically probing and culturally hyper-contemporary novels, stories and essays made him an heir to modern virtuosos like Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo, an experimental contemporary of William T. Vollmann, Mark Leyner and Nicholson Baker and a clear influence on younger tour-de-force stylists like Dave Eggers and Jonathan Safran Foer, died on [Sep, 2008] at his home in Claremont, Calif. He was 46.

I don't know how I missed this. I guess this pushes Infinite Jest up the list...

David Foster Wallace, Influential Writer, Dies at 46 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com