Washington, Sep 14 (IANS) Cult US writer David Foster Wallace, who is best known for 1996 novel ‘Infinite Jest’, has been found hanged at his home in Claremont, California, according to the Los Angeles Times Sunday.

The 46-year-old novelist, essayist and humorist committed suicide Friday evening, his wife Karen Green told the police. She said she found him hanging when she returned home.

Wallace was teaching creative writing at Pomona College in Claremont since 2002, and was on leave this semester, the newspaper said.

Wallace won a cult following for his dark humour and ironic wit, which was on display in his debut novel ‘The Broom of the System’. His other famous works include ‘Girl With Curious Hair’, a 1989 collection of short stories, ‘A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments’ (1997).

His most popular work, ‘Infinite Jest’ had been included by the Time Magazine in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

David Ulin, the Times book editor who was in New York for a National Book Critics Circle Board meeting Saturday, said as the news of Wallace’s death circulated, ‘people were speechless and just blown away’.

‘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,’ Ulin said.

‘And he really restored the notion of the novel as a kind of canvas on which a writer can do anything.’

‘He was one of the most influential and innovative writers of the last 20 years,’ Ulin added.

A memorial service is planned at Pomona College.