A sad tale …

… Capacities of Spirit | Books and Culture.

[David Foster] Wallace's genius emerged early. At five years old, an age when many still struggle with the alphabet, he penned:

My mother works so hard

And for bread she needs some lard.

She bakes the bread. And makes the bed.

And when she's threw

She feels she's dayd.

Wallace's battle with mental illness also began early, he believed as early as nine or ten. In high school, he suffered from anxiety and crippling panic attacks. He was on the high school tennis team, and he took to carrying around a tennis racket and a towel; if he should break out in a panic-induced sweat, he could say he'd just come from tennis.