Dave Eggers Net Worth

What is Dave Eggers's Net Worth?

Dave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher who has a net worth of $8 million. Dave Eggers has written numerous novels, children's books, short stories, and works of nonfiction, and has also co-written some film screenplays. Additionally, he is the founder or co-founder of multiple literary and philanthropic projects, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness.

Early Life and Education

Dave Eggers was born on March 12, 1970 in Boston, Massachusetts to schoolteacher Heidi and attorney John. He has two brothers, William and Christopher, and had a sister named Beth who died by suicide in 2001. Eggers went to high school in Lake Forest, Illinois, and then attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. However, his studies were disrupted by the deaths of both of his parents in the early 1990s. Eggers consequently took responsibility for his younger brother Christopher and moved to Berkeley, California.

Books

Eggers published his first book, the fictionalized memoir "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius," in 2000. A highly lauded bestseller, the book became a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers went on to publish his debut novel, "You Shall Know Our Velocity," in 2002. An expanded and revised version of the book, entitled "Sacrament," came out the following year. In 2004, Eggers published his first short story collection, "How We Are Hungry." He went on to publish his first children's book, "Hello Children," in 2006, the same year he published the novel "What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng." Based on the life of the titular Sudanese child refugee, the latter book was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. At the end of the decade, Eggers published the non-fiction book "Zeitoun," about the experiences of Syrian-American immigrant Abdulrahman Zeitoun during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans.

Eggers published three acclaimed novels between 2012 and 2014, starting with "A Hologram for the King" in 2012. It focuses on a desperate American salesman trying to convince the Saudi royal government to give him permission to build a huge planned city in the middle of the desert. Eggers followed that with his 2013 novel "The Circle," about a young woman uncovering the sinister underbelly of the San Francisco technology company where she works. His third novel in as many years, "Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?," came out in 2014. Told entirely in dialogue, it follows a troubled man who kidnaps seven people and holds them in a deserted US Army base in California. Eggers's next novel, published in 2016, was "Heroes of the Frontier," about a disenchanted single mother who takes her two children on the road through the Alaskan wilderness to escape her dreary life.

In the latter half of the 2010s, Eggers published many children's books, including "Her Right Foot," "The Lifters," "What Can a Citizen Do?," "Abner & Ian Get Right-Side Up," and "Most of the Better Natural Things in the World." He also published the non-fiction books "Ungrateful Mammals" and "The Monk of Mokha" and the novellas "The Parade" and "The Captain and the Glory." In 2021, Eggers published the novella "The Museum of Rain," the first installment in his "The Forgetters" series. The same year saw the publication of his dystopian novel "The Every," a sequel to his 2013 novel "The Circle." Eggers has continued to pen children's books in the 2020s, with titles including "We Became Jaguars," "The Eyes and the Impossible," and "Soren's Seventh Song." Has has also written several more installments in his "The Forgetters" series, including "The Keeper of the Ornaments," "Where the Candles Are Kept," and "Sanrevelle."

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Literary Magazines and Journals

In 1994, Eggers co-founded Might magazine in San Francisco with Marny Requa and David Moodie. He also wrote a comic strip called "Smarter Feller" for San Francisco Weekly. Later, in 1998, Eggers founded the non-profit publishing house McSweeney's and the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, which he also edited. The journal features short stories, illustrations, reportage, and sometimes poetry and comics. McSweeney's also publishes the monthly journal The Believer and formerly published the quarterly DVD magazine "Wholphin." Elsewhere, Eggers's writing has been published in Esquire, the New Yorker, and the New York Times Magazine, among other publications.

Film Screenplays

Eggers has co-written some film screenplays. In 2009, he co-wrote the romantic dramedy "Away We Go" with his wife Vendela Vida and co-wrote the big-screen adaptation of Maurice Sendak's book "Where the Wild Things Are" with Spike Jonze. Later, with James Ponsoldt, Eggers adapted his own book "The Circle" into a film that came out in 2017.

Philanthropic Ventures

In 2002, Eggers and educator Nínive Clements Calegari co-founded the nonprofit 826 Valencia in San Francisco. Dedicated to helping children and young adults build writing and literacy skills, it has since expanded into the national organization 826 National, which has chapters throughout the United States. Through the organization, Eggers launched another nonprofit, ScholarMatch, in 2010; it connects donors with prospective college students in need of funding. Among his other philanthropic ventures, Eggers co-founded the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness with Lola Vollen. The organization publishes books that highlight human rights issues around the world, and also conducts an education program.

Personal Life & Real Estate

In 1998, Eggers met fellow writer Vendela Vida at a wedding. They began a relationship and married in 2003. Eggers and Vida have two children together and reside in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2011, Dave and Vendela paid $1.94 million for a home in Sausalito, California. They continue to own this home and today it is worth around $4 million.

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