Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Gene Wolfe
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
==Personal life== Wolfe was born in New York City, the son of Mary Olivia ({{Nee|Ayers}}) and Emerson Leroy Wolfe.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.bookrags.com/Gene_Wolfe/ |title=Gene Wolfe Summary |publisher=BookRags.com |date=November 2, 2010 |access-date=December 30, 2013}}</ref> He had [[polio]] as a small child.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/interviews/wolfe46interview.htm |title=Larry McCaffery, "On Encompassing the Entire Universe: An Interview with Gene Wolfe" |publisher=Depauw.edu |access-date=December 30, 2013}}</ref> He and his family moved to Houston when he was 6, and he went to high school and college in [[Texas]], attending [[Lamar High School (Houston)|Lamar High School]] in Houston. While attending [[Texas A&M University]], he published his first speculative fiction in ''The Commentator,'' a student literary journal.{{efn|name=two1951|group=notes|1=The [[Internet Speculative Fiction Database]] catalogs two 1951 stories.<ref name=isfdb/>}} Early in his writing career, Wolfe exchanged correspondence with [[J. R. R. Tolkien]].<ref>''The Annotated Hobbit'', 2002 revised and expanded edition, p. 146 n.9; see also Wolfe's [http://home.clara.net/andywrobertson/wolfemountains.html "The Best Introduction To The Mountains"] {{webarchive|url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20040113063643/http%3A//home.clara.net/andywrobertson/wolfemountains.html |date=January 13, 2004 }}</ref> Wolfe dropped out during his junior year and subsequently was drafted to fight in the [[Korean War]].<ref name="AutobiographicalSketch">[http://www.baens-universe.com/authors/Gene_Wolfe Autobiographical sketch] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20061021102340/http://www.baens-universe.com/authors/Gene_Wolfe |date=October 21, 2006 }}</ref> After returning to the United States, he earned a degree from the [[University of Houston]] and became an industrial engineer. He was a senior editor on the staff of the journal ''[[Plant Engineering]]'' for many years<ref>See the article "Gene Wolfe's time at Plant Engineering", on the [http://ultan.org.uk/plant-engineering/ Ultan's Library] website.</ref> before retiring to write full-time, but his most famous professional engineering achievement is a contribution to the machine used to make [[Pringles]] potato chips.<ref name="PersonInterview">{{cite journal|title=Suns new, long, and short: an interview with Gene Wolfe |author=Lawrence Person |date=Fall–Winter 1998 |journal=Nova Express |volume=5 |issue=1 |url=http://home.roadrunner.com/~lperson1/wolfe.html |access-date=December 17, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090916170648/http://home.roadrunner.com/~lperson1/wolfe.html |archive-date=September 16, 2009 }}</ref> Wolfe lived in [[Barrington, Illinois]], a suburb of [[Chicago]], with his wife Rosemary where they raised four children. Wolfe also has three granddaughters. The Wolfes moved to [[Peoria, Illinois]] in 2013. Wolfe underwent double [[Coronary artery bypass surgery|bypass]] surgery on April 24, 2010.<ref>{{cite web|author=Locus Publications |url=http://www.locusmag.com/News/2010/04/gene-wolfe-recovering-from-heart-surgery/ |title=Locus Online News » Gene Wolfe Recovering from Heart Surgery |publisher=Locusmag.com |date=April 27, 2010 |access-date=May 27, 2012}}</ref> Wolfe also underwent cataract surgery on his right eye in early 2013. Wolfe's wife, Rosemary, died on December 14, 2013, after a series of illnesses<ref>{{cite web|author=Michael Swanwick |url=http://floggingbabel.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-farewell-to-rosemary.html |title=Flogging Babel: A Farewell to Rosemary |publisher=Floggingbabel.blogspot.com |date=December 16, 2013 |access-date=December 30, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=Rosemary Wolfe (b.1931) |url=http://www.sfsite.com/news/2013/12/16/obituary-rosemary-wolfe/ |title=SF Site News » Obituary: Rosemary Wolfe |publisher=Sfsite.com |date=December 16, 2013 |access-date=December 30, 2013 |archive-date=April 17, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190417105954/https://www.sfsite.com/news/2013/12/16/obituary-rosemary-wolfe/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> including [[Alzheimer's disease]]. Wolfe said, "There was a time when she did not remember my name or that we were married, but she still remembered that she loved me."<ref name="new-yorker-2015">{{cite news|last1=Bebergal|first1=Peter|title=Sci-Fi's Difficult Genius|url=http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius|magazine=The New Yorker|date=April 24, 2015|url-status=live|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210610150027/https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius|archive-date=June 10, 2021}}</ref> Wolfe died at his Peoria home from [[cardiovascular disease]] on April 14, 2019, at the age of 87.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pjstar/obituary.aspx?n=gene-wolfe&pid=192401181&fhid=14962|title = Gene Wolfe Obituary (1931 - 2019) Peoria Journal Star|website = [[Legacy.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tor.com/2019/04/15/gene-wolfe-in-memoriam-1931-2019/|title=Author and Grand Master Gene Wolfe, 1931-2019|last=Tor.com|date=April 15, 2019|website=Tor.com|language=en-US|access-date=April 15, 2019}}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)