American novelist David Foster Wallace was found dead in his Claremont, California home at age 46. He appears to have hanged himself, said the police, but the reason behind such an extreme step is not known yet. Wallace's wife, Karen Green found him hanging from the ceiling, when she returned home on Friday night around 9:30 p.m.

He was best known for penning the popular 1996 novel “Infinite Jest,” a 1,079-page novel very famous for its large number of footnotes and spiritual humor. Time magazine included the 1,000-plus-page book in its issue of the ''100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.''

He had also been teaching creative writing at Pomona College since 2002 but was now preparing to leave. "He was one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years. He is one of the main writers who brought ambition, a sense of play, a joy in storytelling and an exuberant experimentalism of form back to the novel in the late '80s and early 1990s. He really restored the notion of the novel as a kind of canvas on which a writer can do anything," book editor David Ulin told the L.A. Times.

Wallace's short fiction was published in Esquire, GQ, Harper's, The New Yorker and the Paris Review. Collections of his short stories were published as "Girl With Curious Hair" and "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men."

Wallace also received a "genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 1997. He was worldwide famous for his humor and spiritual style. Wallace's first novel, "The Broom of the System," gained national attention in 1987 for its wittiness and humor. He was only 24 years old at that time.