Thomas Wolfe
| Thomas Wolfe | |
|---|---|
Wolfe in 1937, photo by Carl Van Vechten
|
|
| Born | Thomas Clayton Wolfe October 3, 1900 Asheville, North Carolina, United States |
| Died | September 15, 1938 (aged 37) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater |
University of North Carolina Harvard |
| Genre | Fiction, drama |
| Notable works |
Look Homeward, Angel; Of Time and the River; You Can't Go Home Again; The Web and the Rock |
|
|
|
| Signature |  |
Thomas Clayton Wolfe (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American novelist of the early twentieth century.
Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels, plus many short stories, dramatic works, and novellas. He is known for mixing highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. His books, written and published from the 1920s to the 1940s, vividly reflect on American culture and the mores of that period, albeit filtered through Wolfe's sensitive, sophisticated, and hyper-analytical perspective. He became widely known during his own lifetime.
After Wolfe's death, his contemporary William Faulkner said that Wolfe may have had the best talent of their generation. Wolfe's influence extends to the writings of beat generation writer Jack Kerouac, and of authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others. He remains an important writer in modern American literature, as one of the first masters of autobiographical fiction, and is considered North Carolina's most famous writer.
Wolfe was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the youngest of eight children of William Oliver Wolfe (1851–1922) and Julia Elizabeth Westall (1860–1945). His siblings were sister Leslie E. Wolfe (1885–1886), Effie Nelson Wolfe (1887–1950), Frank Cecil Wolfe (1888–1956), Mabel Elizabeth Wolfe (1890–1958), Grover Cleveland Wolfe (1892–1904), Benjamin Harrison Wolfe (1892–1918), and Frederick William Wolfe (1894–1980). Six of the children lived to adulthood.
The Wolfes lived at 92 Woodfin Street, where Tom was born. His father, a successful stone carver, ran a gravestone business. His mother took in boarders and was active in acquiring real estate. In 1904, she opened a boarding house in St. Louis, for the World's Fair. While the family was in St. Louis, 12-year-old Grover died of typhoid fever.
In 1906 Julia Wolfe bought a boarding house named "Old Kentucky Home" at nearby 48 Spruce Street in Asheville, taking up residence there with her youngest son while the rest of the family remained at the Woodfin Street residence. Wolfe lived in the boarding house on Spruce Street until he went to college in 1916. It is now the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. Wolfe was closest to his brother Ben, whose early death at age 26 is chronicled in Look Homeward, Angel. Julia Wolfe bought and sold many properties, eventually becoming a successful real estate speculator.
...
Wikipedia