Thomas Wolfe

For the modern, currently living author and journalist, see Tom Wolfe

Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900–September 15, 1938) was an important American novelist of the 20th century. He wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works, and novel fragments. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodical, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His books, written during the Great Depression, depicted the variety and diversity of American culture.

Biography

A native of Asheville, North Carolina, he studied at the University of North Carolina, was a member of the UNC Dialectic Society, acted with the Carolina Playmakers, and received his Masters in playwriting at Harvard University. Unable to sell any of his plays, Wolfe found his writing style was more suited to fiction than to the stage. He took a temporary job teaching at New York University, but left after a year for Europe to continue writing. On his return voyage in 1925, he met the married Aline Bernstein who was twenty years his senior. They soon began a turbulent and sometimes combative affair. He dedicated his first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, to Bernstein. Soon after its publication, he fled to Europe once more, thereby ending his affair.

In 1937, on a trip to the West, Wolfe was stricken with pneumonia. Complications arose, and he eventually was diagnosed with tuberculosis of the brain. He was treated at Johns Hopkins Hospital, but the attempt at a life-saving operation revealed the disease had overrun the entire right side of his brain. He died three days later, never regaining consciousness, and having only published two novels, Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River, both edited considerably by Maxwell Perkins, the most prominent book editor of the time and a father-figure to Wolfe. The Web and the Rock and You Can't Go Home Again were published posthumously and edited following Wolfe's detailed direction by Edward Aswell.

After Wolfe's death, William Faulkner, considered by many to be the best writer of the Lost Generation-era, said that Wolfe was his generations best writer; Faulkner listed himself as second. Wolfe's influence extends to the writings of famous Beat writer Jack Kerouac, and he remains one of the most important writers in modern American literature.

Trivia

When he was 15 years old, Thomas Wolfe was a batboy for the Asheville Tourists minor league baseball club.^*

Bibliography

Look Homeward, Angel (1929)
Of Time and the River (1935)
From Death to Morning (1935)
The Story of a Novel (1936)
The Web and the Rock (1939)
You Can't Go Home Again (1940)
The Hills Beyond (1941)
A Western Journal: A Daily Log of the Great Parks Trip, June 20-July 2, 1938 (1951)
Letters (1956)
The Mountains: A Play in One Act; The Mountains: A Drama in Three Acts and a Prologue (1970)
Welcome to our City: A Play in Ten Scenes (1983)
Mannerhouse: A Play in a Prologue and Four Acts (1985)

External links

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Biography

Trivia

Bibliography

Further Reading

External links