Topic: Dave Eggers

Dave Eggers (born March 12, 1970) is an American writer, editor, and publisher.

Eggers was born in Boston, Massachusetts, one of four siblings. His father was an attorney and his mother a school teacher. When Eggers was still a child, the family moved to the upscale suburb of Lake Forest, near Chicago. He attended high school there, and was a classmate of the actor Vince Vaughn.

Eggers attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, intending to get a degree in journalism, but his studies were interrupted by the deaths of both of his parents in 1991, his mother from stomach cancer and his father from brain and lung cancer. These events were chronicled in his first book, the lightly fictionalized A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. At the time, Eggers was 21, and his younger brother, Christopher ("Toph") was 8 years old. The two eldest siblings, Bill and Beth, were unable to commit to the care of Toph; his older brother had a full-time job and his sister was enrolled in law school. As a result, Eggers took responsibility for raising Toph.