Dave Eggers' life took a dramatic turn when, at the tender age of 21, his parents passed away just five weeks apart, leaving him to assume the daunting responsibility of raising his 8-year-old brother, Christopher, in Lake Forest, Illinois. In an effort to restart his life, Eggers relocated to California, where he attempted to blend in with the cool crowd of San Francisco's bohemian scene, while simultaneously leading a secret double life as a single father to his young son in Berkeley.
In 1993, Eggers founded the now-defunct Might Magazine, which marked the beginning of his foray into the world of publishing. He later went on to work as a writer at Esquire, before publishing his heart-wrenching memoir, "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," which recounted the tragic events that had shaped his life.
The memoir's immense success catapulted Eggers to literary stardom, earning him the nickname "theJ.D. Salinger of Generation X," and the book's runner-up position for the Pulitzer Prize. In 1998, Eggers ventured back into the avant-garde magazine world, co-founding the eccentric online publication, www.McSweeneys.net, which would eventually evolve into Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern.
This innovative literary quarterly, which presents itself in a different form with each issue, has become a bastion of top-notch fiction from today's leading writers. McSweeney's has since grown into a full-fledged publishing house, issuing two print magazines, "McSweeney's" and "The Believer," as well as prize-winning books.
Eggers is also the co-founder of 826 National, a non-profit organization with multiple locations across the United States, including San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, and Ann Arbor. Each location boasts its own unique storefront, such as the Pirate Supply Store in San Francisco or the Superhero Supply Company in New York, with all proceeds going toward supporting the organization's tutoring centers.
