Editing Thomas Wolfe

{{Short description|American novelist (1900–1938)}}
{{About|the early 20th-century writer|the late 20th- and early 21st-century writer|Tom Wolfe||Thomas Wolf (disambiguation){{!}}Thomas Wolf}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{Infobox writer
| name             = Thomas Wolfe
| image            = Thomas Wolfe 1937 1 (cropped).jpg
| caption          = Portrait by [[Carl Van Vechten]], 1937
| birth_name       = Thomas Clayton Wolfe
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1900|10|3|mf=y}}
| birth_place      = {{nowrap|[[Asheville, North Carolina]], U.S.}}
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1938|9|15|1900|10|3|mf=y}}
| death_place      = [[Baltimore]], Maryland, U.S.
| occupation       = Author
| alma_mater       = {{ubl|[[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|University of North Carolina]]|[[Harvard University]]}}
| genre            = {{cslist|Fiction|drama}}
| notableworks     = ''[[Look Homeward, Angel]]'' (1929)<br />''[[Of Time and the River]]'' (1935)<br />''[[You Can't Go Home Again]]'' (1940)<br />''[[The Web and the Rock]]'' (1939, posthumous)
| signature        = Thomas Wolfe signature.svg
| resting_place    = [[Riverside Cemetery (Asheville, North Carolina)|Riverside Cemetery]], Asheville
}}

'''Thomas Clayton Wolfe''' (October 3, 1900 – September 15, 1938) was an American [[novelist]]<ref name="ENCY"/><ref name="critical reception">{{cite book | title =  Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception | last = Reeves | first = Paschal | year = 1974 | orig-year = 1974 | publisher = Ayer Publishing | isbn =0-89102-050-0 | page = xvii }}</ref> and [[short story]] [[writer]]. He is known largely for his first novel, ''[[Look Homeward, Angel]]'' (1929), and for the short fiction that appeared during the last years of his life.<ref name="ENCY">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=am1PhEWMqdIC|title=The Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Fiction, 3 Volume Set|publisher=[[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]]|page=918|first=Terry|last=Robert|chapter=Wolfe, Thomas|date=January 18, 2011 |isbn=978-1-4051-9244-6 |editor-first1=Brian W.|editor-last1= Shaffer|editor-first2=John Clement|editor-last2=  Ball|editor-first3= Patrick|editor-last3= O'Donnell}}</ref> He was one of the pioneers of [[autobiographical novel|autobiographical fiction]], and along with [[William Faulkner]], he is considered one of the most important authors of the [[Southern Renaissance]] within the American literary canon.<ref name="Southern">{{cite book|title=Dixie Limited: Railroads, Culture, and the Southern Renaissance|first=Joseph R.|last= Millichap|year=2021|isbn=9780813193731|publisher=[[University Press of Kentucky]]|chapter=Chapter 3: Thomas Wolfe's Southern Railroad: ''Look Homeward, Angel'' and Beyond}}</ref> He has been dubbed "[[North Carolina]]'s most famous writer".<ref name="morgan wolfe">{{cite news | title =  2008 Thomas Wolfe Prize | work = Cornell University | date = September 9, 2008 | url = http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Sept08/Morgan.Wolfe.da.html | access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref>

Wolfe wrote four long novels as well as 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 the American culture and mores of that period, filtered through Wolfe's sensitive and uncomfortable perspective.

After Wolfe's death, Faulkner said that he might have been the greatest talent of their generation, aiming higher than any other writer.<ref name="critical reception"/><ref name="vqr">{{cite web | title = Thomas Wolfe's Final Journal | work = Virginia Quarterly Review | date = August 14, 2009 | url = http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/08/14/wolfe-final-journey/ | access-date = November 10, 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091207095431/http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/08/14/wolfe-final-journey/ | archive-date = December 7, 2009 }}</ref> Faulkner's endorsement, however, failed to win over mid to late 20th century critics and for a time Wolfe's place in the literary canon was questioned. However, 21st century academics have largely rejected this negative assessment, and a more positive and balanced assessment has emerged, combining renewed interest in his works, particularly his short fiction, with greater appreciation of his experimentation with literary forms, which has secured Wolfe a place in the literary canon.<ref name="ENCY"/> 

Wolfe had great influence on [[Jack Kerouac]], and his influence extended to other postwar authors such as [[Ray Bradbury]] and [[Philip Roth]], among others.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://centerforfiction.org/for-readers/the-book-that-made-me-a-reader-archives/the-writer-who-made-me-a-reader/|title=The Book That Made Me A Reader: Philip Roth|website=centerforfiction.org|access-date=August 13, 2018|archive-date=August 11, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180811211447/http://centerforfiction.org/for-readers/the-book-that-made-me-a-reader-archives/the-writer-who-made-me-a-reader|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Early life==
Wolfe was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the youngest of eight children of William Oliver Wolfe (1851–1922) and Julia Elizabeth Westall (1860–1945). Six of the children lived to adulthood.<ref name="unc wilmington">{{cite web|title=Bio |work=UNC Wilmington Library |url=http://library.uncwil.edu/wolfe/bio.htm |access-date=November 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091017075504/http://library.uncwil.edu/wolfe/bio.htm |archive-date=October 17, 2009 }}</ref> His father, of [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] descent,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Meindl |first=Dieter |date=2009 |title=Thomas Wolfe and Germany: modernism and anti-anti-semitism in 'dark in the forest, strange as time' and 'I have a thing to tell you' |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA219589350&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=02765683&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E12603d77&aty=open-web-entry |journal=Thomas Wolfe Review |volume=33 |quote=Thomas Wolfe's interest in Germany was rooted in fairy tales, an early admiration of Goethe, and his father's Pennsylvania Dutch descent. |access-date=January 28, 2024}}</ref> was a successful stone carver and ran a gravestone business.

W. O. Wolfe's business used an angel in the window to attract customers. Thomas Wolfe "described the angel in great detail" in a short story and in ''Look Homeward, Angel''. The angel was sold and, while there was controversy over which one was the actual angel, the location of the "Thomas Wolfe angel" was determined in 1949 to be Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville, North Carolina.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/658697515/|title=Where is the real Thomas Wolfe angel?|last=Boyle|first=John|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|date=April 24, 2020|page=A2|via=newspapers.com|access-date=July 27, 2020}}</ref>

Wolfe's mother took in boarders and was active in acquiring real estate. In 1904, she opened a boarding house in St. Louis, Missouri, for the [[Louisiana Purchase Exposition|World's Fair]]. While the family was in St. Louis, Wolfe's 12-year-old brother, Grover, died of [[typhoid fever]].

[[File:Thomas Wolfe's Home.jpg|left|upright=0.9|thumb|[[Thomas Wolfe House]], 48 Spruce Street in Asheville]]
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 House|Thomas Wolfe Memorial]].<ref name="nytimes blog">[http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/thomas-wolfes-angel-of-death/ Thomas Wolfe's 'Angel' of Death] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119023538/http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/thomas-wolfes-angel-of-death/ |date=November 19, 2010 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'' blog – May 1, 2009</ref> Wolfe was closest to his brother Ben, whose early death at age 26 is chronicled in ''[[Look Homeward, Angel]]''.<ref name="unc wilmington"/> Julia Wolfe bought and sold many properties, eventually becoming a successful real estate speculator.<ref name="unc wilmington"/>

Wolfe began to study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) when he was 15 years old. A member of the [[Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies|Dialectic Society]] and [[Pi Kappa Phi]] fraternity, he predicted that his portrait would one day hang in New West near that of celebrated North Carolina governor [[Zebulon Vance]], which it does today.<ref name="nc memorial">{{cite web | title = Thomas Wolfe Timeline | work = Wolfe Memorial | url = http://www.wolfememorial.com/life.html | access-date = November 10, 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121120174416/http://www.wolfememorial.com/life.html | archive-date = November 20, 2012 }}</ref> Aspiring to be a playwright, in 1919 Wolfe enrolled in a playwriting course.<ref name="critical reception"/> His one-act play, ''The Return of Buck Gavin'', was performed by the newly formed [[PlayMakers Repertory Company#History of the Carolina Playmakers|Carolina Playmakers]], then composed of classmates in Frederick Koch's playwriting class, with Wolfe acting the title role. He edited UNC's [[student newspaper]] ''[[The Daily Tar Heel]]''<ref name="unc wilmington"/> and won the Worth Prize for Philosophy for an essay titled "The Crisis in Industry". Another of his plays, ''The Third Night'', was performed by the Playmakers in December 1919. Wolfe was inducted into the Golden Fleece honor society.<ref name="nc memorial"/>

Wolfe graduated from UNC with a bachelor of arts in June 1920, and in September, entered Harvard University, where he studied playwriting under [[George Pierce Baker]]. Two versions of his play ''The Mountains'' were performed by Baker's 47 Workshop in 1921. While taking Baker's 47 Workshop course he befriended the playwright [[Kenneth Raisbeck]] who was Baker's graduate assistant. Wolfe later based the character of Francis Starwick in his semi-autobiographical novel ''[[Of Time and the River]]'' (1935) on Raisbeck.<ref>{{cite book|title= The Starwick Episodes|chapter=A Portrait of Kenneth Raisbeck|first=Richard S.|last= Kennedy|editor-first=Richard S.|editor-last=Kennedy|page=5|publisher=[[LSU Press]]|isbn=9780807119754|year=1994}}</ref>

In 1922, Wolfe received his master's degree from Harvard. His father died in Asheville in June of that year. Wolfe studied another year with Baker, and the 47 Workshop produced his 10-scene play ''Welcome to Our City'' in May 1923.

Wolfe visited New York City again in November 1923 and solicited funds for UNC, while trying to sell his plays to Broadway. In February 1924, he began teaching [[National Council of Teachers of English|English]] as an instructor at New York University (NYU), a position he occupied periodically for almost seven years.

==Career==
Wolfe was unable to sell any of his plays after three years because of their great length.<ref name="nc memorial"/> The [[Theatre Guild]] came close to producing ''Welcome to Our City'' before ultimately rejecting it, and Wolfe found his writing style more suited to fiction than the stage.<ref name="critical reception"/> He sailed to Europe in October 1924 to continue writing. From England he traveled to France, Italy and Switzerland.

On his return voyage in 1925, he met [[Aline Bernstein]] (1880–1955), a scene designer for the Theatre Guild. Twenty years his senior, she was married to a successful stockbroker with whom she had two children. In October 1925, she and Wolfe became lovers and remained so for five years.<ref name="nc memorial"/> Their affair was turbulent and sometimes combative, but she exerted a powerful influence, encouraging and funding his writing.<ref name="nc memorial"/>

Wolfe returned to Europe in the summer of 1926 and began writing the first version of an autobiographical novel titled ''O Lost''. The narrative, which evolved into ''[[Look Homeward, Angel]]'', fictionalized his early experiences in Asheville, and chronicled family, friends, and the boarders at his mother's establishment on Spruce Street. In the book, he renamed the town Altamont and called the boarding house "Dixieland". His family's surname became Gant, and Wolfe called himself Eugene, his father Oliver, and his mother Eliza. The original manuscript of ''O Lost'' was over 1,100 pages (333,000 words) long,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/5752 |title=Thomas Wolfe - North Carolina Digital History |access-date=February 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823091533/http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/5752 |archive-date=August 23, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="sons of perkins">{{cite book | title = The Sons of Maxwell Perkins: Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and Their Editor | last = Bruccoli| first = Matthew | year = 2004| orig-year = 2004| publisher = University of South Carolina Press| location = Columbia, South Carolina| page = xviii}}</ref> and considerably more experimental in style than the final version of ''Look Homeward, Angel''. It was submitted to [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner's]], where the editing was done by [[Maxwell Perkins]], the most prominent book editor of the time, who also worked with [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] and [[Ernest Hemingway]]. He cut the book to focus more on the character of Eugene, a stand-in for Wolfe. Wolfe initially expressed gratitude to Perkins for his disciplined editing, but he had misgivings later. It has been said that Wolfe found a father figure in Perkins, and that Perkins, who had five daughters, found a sort of foster son in Wolfe.<ref name="nytimes 2000"/>

The novel, which had been dedicated to Bernstein, was published 11 days before the [[stock market crash of 1929]].<ref name="nc memorial"/><ref name="critical reception3">{{cite book| title = Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception | last = Reeves| first = Paschal| year = 1974| orig-year = 1974| publisher = Ayer Publishing| isbn =0-89102-050-0 | page = xix}}</ref> Soon afterward, Wolfe returned to Europe and ended his affair with Bernstein.<ref name="nytimes 2000"/> The novel caused a stir in Asheville, with its over 200 thinly disguised local characters.<ref name="nc memorial"/><ref name="kephart">[https://web.archive.org/web/20151016223816/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6759/is_30/ai_n28413324/ Horace Kephart and Thomas Wolfe's "abomination," Look Homeward, Angel], ''Thomas Wolfe Review'' - 2006</ref><ref name="margaret roberts">[http://www.buncombecounty.org/GOVERNING/depts/Library/Gallery/women/image.asp?images=20&keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=700 Margaret E. Roberts (Mrs. John Munsey Roberts), Buncombe County Library] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215095945/http://www.buncombecounty.org/GOVERNING/depts/Library/Gallery/women/image.asp?images=20&keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=700 |date=December 15, 2010 }}</ref> Wolfe chose to stay away from Asheville for eight years because of the uproar; he traveled to Europe for a year on a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]].<ref name="nc memorial"/><ref name="nc archives">{{cite web| title = Thomas Wolfe| work = North Carolina Department of Archives and History| url = http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/nc/NCSITES/ASHEVILL/wolfe.htm| access-date = November 10, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100416224925/http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/nc/NCSITES/ASHEVILL/wolfe.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = April 16, 2010}}</ref><ref name="critical reception xxii">{{cite book| title = Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception| last = Reeves| first = Paschal| year = 1974| orig-year = 1974| publisher = Ayer Publishing| isbn =0-89102-050-0 | page = xxii }}</ref> ''Look Homeward, Angel'' was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and Germany.<ref name="critical reception3"/> Some members of Wolfe's family were upset with their portrayal in the book, but his sister Mabel wrote to him that she was sure he had the best of intentions.<ref name="wj cash mabel">{{cite news| title = His Sister Knew Tom Wolfe Well| work = The Charlotte News| date = July 30, 1939| url = http://www.wjcash.org/WJCash2/Prophet.Reader/She.Knew.Tom.Wolfe.Well.htm| access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref>

After four more years writing in Brooklyn,<ref name="critical reception xxii"/> the second novel Wolfe submitted to Scribner's was ''The October Fair'', a multi-volume epic roughly the length of [[Marcel Proust]]'s ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]''. After considering the commercial possibilities of publishing the book in full, Perkins opted to cut it significantly and create a single volume. Titled ''[[Of Time and the River]]'', it was more commercially successful than ''Look Homeward, Angel''.<ref name="nc memorial"/> In an ironic twist, the citizens of Asheville were more upset this time because they had not been included.<ref name="vqr volkening">{{cite news| title = Tom Wolfe: Penance No More| work = Virginia Quarterly Review| date = Spring 1939| url = http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1939/spring/volkening-tom-wolfe/| access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref> The character of Esther Jack was based on Bernstein.<ref name="nytimes 2000"/> In 1934, [[Maxim Lieber]] served as his literary agent.

Wolfe was persuaded by [[Edward Aswell]] to leave Scribner's and sign with [[Harper & Brothers Publishers|Harper & Brothers]].<ref name=NCU>{{cite web|title=Edward C. Aswell Papers on Thomas Wolfe|url=http://www2.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/tw/cw3.html|publisher=North Carolina University at the Louis Round Special Collections Library|access-date=April 23, 2014}}</ref> By some accounts, Perkins' severe editing of Wolfe's work is what prompted him to leave.<ref name="vqr catawba">{{cite web| title = Thomas Wolfe's "Old Catawba" | work = Virginia Quarterly Review| date = July 8, 2009| url = http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/07/08/wolfe-old-catawba/| access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref> Others describe his growing resentment that some people attributed his success to Perkins' work as editor.<ref name="nytimes 2000">{{cite news| title = Looking Homeward To Thomas Wolfe; An Uncut Version of His First Novel Is to Be Published on His Centenary| work = The New York Times| date = October 2, 2000| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/02/books/looking-homeward-thomas-wolfe-uncut-version-his-first-novel-be-published-his.html |access-date=November 10, 2009| first=Dinitia| last=Smith}}</ref> In 1936, [[Bernard DeVoto]], reviewing ''The Story of a Novel'' for ''Saturday Review'', wrote that ''Look Homeward, Angel'' was "hacked and shaped and compressed into something resembling a novel by Mr. Perkins and the assembly-line at Scribners".<ref>David Donald, ''Look Homeward'' (1987), 376-7</ref><ref name="southern journal">{{cite journal |last1= Roberts|first1= Terry|year= 2000|title= Resurrecting Thomas Wolfe |journal=Southern Literary Journal|volume= 33|issue= 1|pages= 27–41|doi= 10.1353/slj.2000.0012|doi-access= free|url= https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/article/31710/pdf}}</ref>

Wolfe spent much time in Europe and was especially popular and at ease in [[Germany]], where he made many friends. However, in 1936 he witnessed incidents of discrimination against [[Jews]], which upset him and changed his mind about the political developments in the country.<ref name="southern journal"/> He returned to America and published a story based on his observations ("I Have a Thing to Tell You") in ''[[The New Republic]]''.<ref name="southern journal"/> Following its publication, Wolfe's books were banned by the German government, and he was prohibited from traveling there.<ref name="southern journal"/>

In 1937, "Chickamauga", his short story set during the [[American Civil War]] [[Battle of Chickamauga|battle of the same name]], was published.<ref>{{cite book|title=Chickamauga, and other Civil War Stories|editor=Foote, Shelby|year=1993|publisher=Random House Publishing |isbn=0-385-31100-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/chickamaugaother0000unse}}</ref> Wolfe returned to Asheville in early 1937 for the first time since publication of his first book.<ref name="southern journal"/>

==Death==
In 1938, after submitting over one million words of manuscript to his new editor, Edward Aswell, Wolfe left New York for a tour of the Western United States.<ref name="vqr western journey">{{cite web | title =  A Western Journey | work = Virginia Quarterly Review | date = Summer 1939 | url = http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1939/summer/wolfe-western-journey/ | access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref> On the way, he stopped at Purdue University and gave a lecture, "Writing and Living", and then spent two weeks traveling through 11 national parks in the West, the only part of the country he had never visited.<ref name="vqr"/> Wolfe wrote to Aswell that while he had focused on his family in his previous writing, he would now take a more global perspective.<ref name="vqr aswell">{{cite web | title = Notes on 'A Western Journey' | work = Virginia Quarterly Review | date = Summer 1939 | url = http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1939/summer/aswell-notes-western-journey/ | access-date = November 10, 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091208150521/http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1939/summer/aswell-notes-western-journey/ | archive-date = December 8, 2009 }}</ref> In July, he became ill with pneumonia while visiting Seattle, spending three weeks in the hospital there.<ref name="wj cash mabel"/> His sister Mabel closed her boarding house in Washington, D.C. and went to Seattle to care for him.<ref name="wj cash mabel"/> Complications arose, and Wolfe was eventually diagnosed with [[miliary tuberculosis]].

On September 6, he was sent to Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital for treatment by [[Walter Dandy]],<ref name="wj cash mabel"/> the most famous neurosurgeon in the country, but an operation revealed that the disease had overrun the entire right side of his brain. Without regaining consciousness, he died 18 days before his 38th birthday.<ref name="vqr aswell"/>

On his deathbed and shortly before lapsing into a coma, Wolfe wrote a letter to Perkins.<ref name="nc historic perkins">{{cite web | title = Thomas Wolfe Memorial: Maxwell Perkins | publisher = NC Historic Sites | url = http://www.nchistoricsites.org/wolfe/perkins.htm | access-date = November 10, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161223060416/http://www.nchistoricsites.org/wolfe/perkins.htm | archive-date = December 23, 2016 | url-status = dead }}</ref> He acknowledged that Perkins had helped to realize his work and had made his labors possible. In closing he wrote:

<blockquote>I shall always think of you and feel about you the way it was that Fourth of July day three years ago when you met me at the boat, and we went out on the cafe on the river and had a drink and later went on top of the tall building, and all the strangeness and the glory and the power of life and of the city was below.<ref>[http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/Sections/hs/wolfe/bio.htm North Carolina Office of Archives and History - A Brief Biography of Thomas Wolfe] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070917094729/http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/Sections/hs/wolfe/bio.htm |date=September 17, 2007 }}</ref></blockquote>

Wolfe was buried in [[Riverside Cemetery (Asheville, North Carolina)|Riverside Cemetery]] in Asheville, North Carolina, beside his parents and siblings.

After Wolfe's death, ''The New York Times'' wrote: <blockquote>His was one of the most confident young voices in contemporary American literature, a vibrant, full-toned voice which it is hard to believe could be so suddenly stilled. The stamp of genius was upon him, though it was an undisciplined and unpredictable genius ... There was within him an unspent energy, an untiring force, an unappeasable hunger for life and for expression which might have carried him to the heights and might equally have torn him down.<ref name="vqr"/></blockquote> ''Time'' wrote: "The death last week of Thomas Clayton Wolfe shocked critics with the realization that, of all American novelists of his generation, he was the one from whom most had been expected."<ref name="time 1938">{{cite magazine | title =  Books: Unpredictable Imagination | magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = September 26, 1938 | url = https://time.com/archive/6779735/books-unpredictable-imagination/ }}</ref>

==Posthumous works==
Wolfe saw less than half of his work published in his lifetime.<ref name="critical reception2">{{cite book | title =  Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception | last = Reeves | first = Paschal | year = 1974 | orig-year = 1974 | publisher = Ayer Publishing | isbn =0-89102-050-0 | page = xviii }}</ref> Two novels, ''[[The Web and the Rock]]'' and ''[[You Can't Go Home Again]]'', were edited posthumously by [[Edward Aswell]] of Harper & Brothers. The novels were "two of the longest one-volume novels ever written" (nearly 700 pages each).<ref name="time 1940">{{cite magazine | title =  Books: Burning, Burning, Burning | magazine = Time | date = September 23, 1940 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802021,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080915052033/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802021,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = September 15, 2008 | url-access=subscription | access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref> In these novels, Wolfe changed the name of his autobiographical character from Eugene Gant to George Webber.<ref name="time 1940"/>

''O Lost'', the original "author's cut" of ''[[Look Homeward, Angel]],'' was reconstructed by [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] scholar [[Matthew Bruccoli]] and published in 2000 on the centennial of Wolfe's birth. Bruccoli said that while Perkins was a talented editor, ''Look Homeward, Angel'' is inferior to the complete work of ''O Lost'' and that the publication of the complete novel "marks nothing less than the restoration of a masterpiece to the literary canon".<ref name="nytimes 2000"/>

==Critical reception==
Upon publication of ''Look Homeward, Angel'', most reviewers responded favorably, including [[John Chamberlain (journalist)|John Chamberlain]], [[Carl Clinton Van Doren|Carl Van Doren]], and [[Stringfellow Barr]].<ref name="critical reception xx">{{cite book | title =  Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception
 | last = Reeves | first = Paschal | year = 1974 | orig-year = 1974 | publisher = Ayer Publishing | isbn =0-89102-050-0 | pages = xx – xxi }}</ref> Margaret Wallace wrote in ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'' that Wolfe had produced "as interesting and powerful a book as has ever been made out of the drab circumstances of provincial American life".<ref name="nytimes 2000"/> An anonymous review published in ''Scribner's'' magazine compared Wolfe to [[Walt Whitman]], and many other reviewers and scholars have found similarities in their works since.<ref name="whitman clemson">{{cite web | title = Walt Whitman's and Thomas Wolfe's Treatment of the American Landscape | work = Valdosta University | url = http://www.valdosta.edu/note/web-content/archive/web-content/Old%20note%20website%20material/mccleary.htm | access-date = November 10, 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120223053441/http://www.valdosta.edu/note/web-content/archive/web-content/Old%20note%20website%20material/mccleary.htm | archive-date = February 23, 2012 }}</ref>

When published in the UK in July 1930, the book received similar reviews. [[Richard Aldington]] wrote that the novel was "the product of an immense exuberance, organic in its form, kinetic, and drenched with the love of life...I rejoice over Mr. Wolfe".<ref name="mitchell 140">{{cite book | title = Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography | last = Mitchell | first = Ted | year = 2006 | publisher = Pegasus Books | isbn = 1-933648-10-4 | page = [https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00tedm/page/140 140] | url = https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00tedm/page/140 }}</ref> Both in his 1930 [[Nobel Prize for Literature]] acceptance speech and original press conference announcement, [[Sinclair Lewis]], the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, said of Wolfe, "He may have a chance to be the greatest American writer...In fact I don't see why he should not be one of the greatest world writers."<ref name="time of time">{{cite magazine | title =  Books: U. S. Voice
 | magazine = Time | date = March 12, 1935 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883300,00.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20111222070554/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,883300,00.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = December 22, 2011 |url-access=subscription | access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref>

Upon publication of his second novel, ''Of Time and the River'', most reviewers and the public remained supportive, though some critics found shortcomings while still hailing it for moments or aspects of greatness.<ref name="critical reception xxii"/> The book was well received by the public and became his only American bestseller.<ref name="critical reception xxii"/> The publication was viewed as "the literary event of 1935"; by comparison, the earlier attention given to ''Look Homeward, Angel'' was modest.<ref name="critical reception xxiii">{{cite book | title =  Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception | last = Reeves | first = Paschal | year = 1974 | orig-year = 1974 | publisher = Ayer Publishing | isbn =0-89102-050-0 | page = xxiii }}</ref> Both ''The New York Times'' and ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' published enthusiastic front-page reviews.<ref name="critical reception xxiii"/> [[Clifton Fadiman]] wrote in ''The New Yorker'' that while he was not sure what he thought of the book, "for decades we have not had eloquence like his in American writing".<ref name="critical reception xxiii"/> Malcolm Cowley of ''[[The New Republic]]'' thought the book would be twice as good if half as long, but stated Wolfe was "the only contemporary writer who can be mentioned in the same breath as Dickens and Dostoevsky".<ref name="critical reception xxiii"/> [[Robert Penn Warren]] thought Wolfe produced some brilliant fragments from which "several fine novels might be written". He went on to say: "And meanwhile it may be well to recollect that Shakespeare merely wrote ''[[Hamlet]]''; he was ''not'' Hamlet."<ref name="critical reception xxiii"/> Warren also praised Wolfe in the same review, though, as did [[John Donald Wade]] in a separate review.<ref name="clemson">{{cite journal | last = Bradley | first = Patricia L. | title = Robert Penn Warren, Thomas Wolfe, and the Problem of Autobiography | url = http://cup.sites.clemson.edu/scr/volumes/facsimiles/scr-38n2.pdf | journal = [[The South Carolina Review]] | volume = 38 | issue = 2 | date = Spring 2006 | pages = 136–145 | access-date = May 27, 2018 | archive-date = May 27, 2018 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20180527201337/http://cup.sites.clemson.edu/scr/volumes/facsimiles/scr-38n2.pdf | url-status = dead }}</ref>

Though he was acclaimed during his lifetime as one of the most important American writers, comparable to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, or William Faulkner,<ref name="southern journal"/> Wolfe's reputation as a writer was heavily criticized after his death.<ref name="nytimes 2000"/><ref name="southern journal"/> He was ridiculed by such prominent critics as Harold Bloom and James Wood.<ref name="wolfe fire">{{cite news | title = A House Restored, An Author Revisited; Thomas Wolfe Shrine Returns | work = The New York Times | date = June 5, 2003 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/05/arts/a-house-restored-an-author-revisited-thomas-wolfe-shrine-returns.html | access-date = November 11, 2009 | first = Ralph | last = Blumenthal}}</ref> At one time he was left out of college courses and anthologies devoted to great writers.<ref name="southern journal"/> Faulkner and [[W.J. Cash]] listed Wolfe as the ablest writer of their generation, although Faulkner later qualified his praise.<ref name="wj cash">{{cite news | title =  Immortality in Words: On Living Forever | work = The Charlotte News | date = October 16, 1938 | url = http://www.wjcash.org/WJCash1/Charlotte.News.Articles/LivingForever.htm | access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref> Despite his early admiration of Wolfe's work, Faulkner later decided that his novels were "like an elephant trying to do the hoochie-coochie". Ernest Hemingway's verdict was that Wolfe was "the over-bloated [[Li'l Abner]] of literature".<ref>Wetzsteon, Ross, ''Republic of Dreams Greenwich Village: The American Bohemia 1910–1960'', Simon & Schuster, 2003, p. 415</ref>

Twenty-first century scholars have largely rejected the overly negative criticism of Wolfe from the mid to late 20th century.<ref name="ENCY"/> This re-assessment of Wolfe began in the 1980s with writers like Leslie Fields whose entry on Wolfe in the ''[[Dictionary of Literary Biography]]'' (1981) was one of the earlier publications to provide a more thorough and positive assessment of Wolfe's short stories. From this point on, positive re-assessment began to grow and current assessment of Wolfe tends to be more balanced, with a greater appreciation of his experimentation with literary forms.<ref name="ENCY"/>  ''The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe'' was published in 1987, and his short stories were later published in several anthologies, including ''American Classics'' (1989, [[Marshall Cavendish]]), ''The American Short Story: A Treasury of the Memorable and Familiar, by the Great American Writers from Washington Irving to Saul Bellow'' (1994, State Street Press), ''Short Stories from the Old North State'' (2012, [[University of North Carolina Press]]), and ''Writing Appalachia: An Anthology'' (2020, [[University Press of Kentucky]]) among others. Wolfe is now read more widely in high school and college literature courses then previously.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Teaching Thomas Wolfe in the twenty-first century: a roundtable|first= Anne R.|last= Zahlan|journal= Thomas Wolfe Review|volume= 39|year=2015}}</ref> Today, [[William Faulkner]] and Wolfe are considered the two most important authors of the [[Southern Renaissance]] within the American literary canon.<ref name="Southern"/>

==Legacy==
Southerner and Harvard historian David Herbert Donald's biography of Wolfe, ''Look Homeward'', won the [[Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography|Pulitzer Prize for Biography]] in 1988.

Wolfe inspired the works of many other authors, including [[Betty Smith]] with ''[[A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (novel)|A Tree Grows in Brooklyn]]'', [[Robert Morgan (poet)|Robert Morgan]], author of ''[[Gap Creek]]'', and ''[[Prince of Tides]]'' author [[Pat Conroy]], who has said "My writing career began the instant I finished ''Look Homeward, Angel''."<ref name="morgan wolfe"/><ref name="mitchell 334"/><ref name="betty smith">{{cite web | title = 1943 Publication of A Tree Grows In Brooklyn: Betty Smith and Harper & Brothers | work = NJIT | url = http://web.njit.edu/~cjohnson/tree/pub/pub.htm | access-date = November 10, 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160828082433/https://web.njit.edu/~cjohnson/tree/pub/pub.htm | archive-date = August 28, 2016 | url-status = dead }}</ref> [[Jack Kerouac]] idolized Wolfe.<ref name="city lights">{{cite web | title = The Town and the City | work = City Lights Bookstore & Publishers | url = http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100698400 | access-date = November 11, 2009 | archive-date = June 13, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110613172019/http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100698400 | url-status = dead }}</ref> [[Ray Bradbury]] was influenced by Wolfe, and included him as a character in his books.<ref name="bradbury">{{cite book | title =  Ray Bradbury: A Critical Companion | last = Reid | first = Robin Anne | year = 2000 | publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | isbn =0-313-30901-9 | page = 11 }}</ref> [[Earl Hamner, Jr.]], who created the popular television series ''[[The Waltons]]'', idolized Wolfe in his youth.<ref>{{cite web | title =  Earl Hamner Jr., Creator of 'The Waltons', Dies at 92 | work = The Hollywood Reporter | date = March 24, 2016 | url = https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/earl-hamner-jr-dead-waltons-878287 | access-date = March 25, 2016 }}</ref>

[[Hunter S. Thompson]] credits Wolfe for his famous phrase "Fear and Loathing" (on page 62 of ''[[The Web and the Rock]]'').<ref>{{cite news | first=Joe | last=Klein | title=Forever Weird | date=November 18, 2007| url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/books/review/Klein-t.html | work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

==Archives==
Two universities hold the primary archival collections of Thomas Wolfe materials in the United States: the Thomas Clayton Wolfe Papers at Harvard University's [[Houghton Library]], which includes all of Wolfe's manuscripts,<ref name="unc wilmington"/> and the Thomas Wolfe Collections in the [[North Carolina Collection]] at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Each October, at the time of Wolfe's birthday, UNC-Chapel Hill presents the annual Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture to a contemporary writer, with past recipients including [[Roy Blount, Jr.]], [[Robert Morgan (poet)|Robert Morgan]], and [[Pat Conroy]].<ref name="wolfe prize">{{cite web|title=About the Thomas Wolfe Prize and Lecture |work=University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill |url=http://english.unc.edu/wolfe/index.html |access-date=November 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330130703/http://english.unc.edu/wolfe/index.html |archive-date=March 30, 2009 }}</ref>

==Tributes==
''Return of an Angel'', a play by Sandra Mason, explores the reactions of Wolfe's family and the citizens of his hometown of Asheville to the publication of ''Look Homeward, Angel''. The play was staged several times near the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, in the month of October, to commemorate his birthday. [[Pack Memorial Library]] in Asheville hosts the Thomas Wolfe Collection which "honors Asheville's favorite son".<ref>[http://www.buncombecounty.org/governing/depts/Library/locations_pack.htm Buncombe County Public Libraries] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304172545/http://www.buncombecounty.org/governing/depts/Library/locations_pack.htm |date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref> The Western North Carolina Historical Association has presented the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award yearly since 1955 for a literary achievement of the previous year.<ref name="wnc assoc">{{cite news | title =  Fairview author Bruce E. Johnson receives Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award in Asheville | work = Asheville Citizen-Times | date = October 21, 2009 | url = http://www.citizen-times.com/article/20091021/NEWS01/910210318/Fairview-author-Bruce-E.-Johnson-receives-Thomas-Wolfe-Memorial-Literary-Award-in-Asheville | access-date = November 10, 2009 }} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> The Thomas Wolfe Society celebrates Wolfe's writings and publishes an annual review about Wolfe's work.<ref name="mitchell 334">{{cite book | title = Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography | last = Mitchell | first = Ted | year = 2006 | publisher = Pegasus Books | isbn = 1-933648-10-4 | page = [https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00tedm/page/334 334] | url = https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00tedm/page/334 }}</ref> The [[United States Postal Service]] honored Wolfe with a postage stamp on the occasion of what would have been Wolfe's 100th birthday in 2000.<ref name="mitchell 334"/>

==Historic landmarks==
The "Old Kentucky Home" was donated by Wolfe's family as the [[Thomas Wolfe House|Thomas Wolfe Memorial]] and has been open to visitors since the 1950s, owned by the state of North Carolina since 1976 and designated as a [[National Historic Landmark]].<ref name="wolfe fire"/> Wolfe called it "Dixieland" in ''Look Homeward, Angel''.<ref name=Boyle>{{cite news|url=http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2017/03/14/answer-man-historic-thomas-wolfe-cabin-set-rehab/99140854/|title=Answer Man: Historic Thomas Wolfe cabin set for rehab?|last=Boyle|first=John|work=[[Asheville Citizen-Times]]|date=March 14, 2017|access-date=March 16, 2017}}</ref> In 1998, 200 of the house's 800 original artifacts and the house's dining room were destroyed by a fire set by an arsonist during the [[Bele Chere]] street festival. The perpetrator remains unknown.<ref name="wolfe fire"/> After a $2.4 million restoration, the house was re-opened in 2003.<ref name="wolfe fire"/>

A cabin built by Wolfe's friend Max Whitson in 1924 near Azalea Road was designated as a historic landmark by the Asheville City Council in 1982. Thomas Wolfe Cabin, as it is called, was where Wolfe spent the summer of 1937 in his last visit to the city.<ref name=Boyle/> In a letter to [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]], Wolfe wrote "I am going into the woods. I am going to try to do the best, the most important piece of work I have ever done", referring to ''October Fair'', which became ''The Web and the Rock'' and ''You Can't Go Home Again''. He also wrote "The Party at Jack's" while at the cabin in the Oteen community.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2017/05/07/visiting-our-past-preserving-wolfes-asheville-legacy/101344190/|title=Visiting Our Past: Preserving Wolfe's Asheville legacy|last=Neufeld|first=Rob|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|date=May 8, 2017|access-date=May 8, 2017}}</ref> The city bought the property, including a larger house, from John Moyer in 2001,<ref name=Boyle/> and did some work fixing up the cabin. Restoring the cabin would cost $300,000 but as of 2021 there is no funding. Plans for the site would cost at least $3.5 million, and as much as $6.7 million.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2021/10/05/answer-man-wake-sculpture-not-moving-thomas-wolfe-cabin-plans/5987991001/|title=Answer Man: WAKE sculpture not moving? Thomas Wolfe cabin plans?|last=Boyle|first=John|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|date=October 5, 2021}}</ref>

==The Thomas Wolfe Society==
The Thomas Wolfe Society,<ref>[http://www.thomaswolfe.org Thomas Wolfe Society] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161020065653/http://www.thomaswolfe.org/ |date=October 20, 2016 }} website</ref> established in the late 1970s, issues an annual publication of Wolfe-related materials, and its journal, ''The Thomas Wolfe Review'' features scholarly articles, belles lettres, and reviews. The Society also awards prizes for literary scholarship on Wolfe.

==Adaptations==
In 1958, [[Ketti Frings]] adapted ''Look Homeward, Angel'' into a [[Look Homeward, Angel (play)|play of the same name]]. It ran on Broadway for 564 performances at the [[Ethel Barrymore Theatre]], received six [[Tony Award]] nominations, and won the 1958 [[Pulitzer Prize for Drama]]. Frings was named "Woman of the Year" by ''The Los Angeles Times'' in the same year.<ref name="critical reception xxii"/> In 1972, it was presented as a television drama, as was ''Of Time and the River'' in a one-hour version.<ref name="critical reception xxii"/>

Wolfe's play ''Welcome to Our City'' was performed twice at Harvard during his graduate school years, in Zurich in Switzerland during the 1950s, and by the Mint Theater in New York City in 2000 in celebration of Wolfe's 100th birthday.[51]

The title character of [[Herman Wouk]]'s 1962 bestselling novel ''[[Youngblood Hawke]]'', and its subsequent film adaptation, was loosely based on Wolfe.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Kauffmann|first=Stanley|title=Look Backward, Angel|magazine=New Republic|date=11 June 1962|volume=146|issue=24|pages=24–25}}</ref>

Wolfe's relationship with his editor Maxwell Perkins was the basis of a movie titled ''[[Genius (2016 film)|Genius]]'' in 2016 in which [[Jude Law]] and [[Colin Firth]] played the roles of Wolfe and Perkins respectively. [[Nicole Kidman]] played [[Aline Bernstein]].<ref>{{Cite magazine|last=Busis|first=Hillary|title=See Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Colin Firth Share the Screen in Genius|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/06/nicole-kidman-jude-law-genius|access-date=2021-05-27|magazine=Vanity Fair|date=June 6, 2016 |language=en-US}}</ref>

==Works==

===Novels===
* ''[[Look Homeward, Angel]]'' (1929)
* ''[[Of Time and the River]]'' (1935)

Posthumous works:
* ''[[The Web and the Rock]]'' (1939; published posthumously)
* ''[[You Can't Go Home Again]]'' (1940; published posthumously)
* ''[[The Hills Beyond]]'' (1941; published posthumously)
* ''The Hound of Darkness'' (1986; published posthumously)
* ''[[The Good Child's River]]'' (1991; published posthumously)
* ''The Starwick Episodes'' (1994; deleted sections from ''Of Time and the River''; published posthumously)
* ''O Lost: A Story of the Buried Life'' (2000)

===Short fiction collections===
* ''[[From Death to Morning]]'' (1935)
* ''Short Stories'' (1947) aka ''Only the Dead Know Brooklyn'' (1952)
* ''Short Novels of Thomas Wolfe'' (1961; published posthumously; collects ''A Portrait of Bascom Hawke'', ''The Web of Earth'', ''No Door'', ''"I Have a Thing to Tell You"'', and ''The Party at Jack's'')
* ''The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe'' (1987)

===Plays===
* ''Mannerhouse: A Play in a Prologue and Four Acts'' (1948; published posthumously)
* ''The Mountains: A Play in One Act; The Mountains: A Drama in Three Acts and a Prologue'' (1970; published posthumously)
* ''Welcome to Our City: A Play in Ten Scenes'' (Performed in 1923; published posthumously in 1983)

===Nonfiction===
* ''The Story of a Novel'' (1936)
* ''A Western Journal: A Daily Log of the Great Parks Trip, June 20–July 2, 1938'' (1951; published posthumously)
* ''The Letters of Thomas Wolfe'' (1956; published posthumously)
* ''Beyond Love and Loyalty: The Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Elizabeth Nowell'' (1983; published posthumously)
* ''My Other Loneliness: Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Aline Bernstein'' (1983; Richard Kennedy, ed.)
* ''To Loot My Life Clean: The Thomas Wolfe–Maxwell Perkins Correspondence'' (2000; Matthew J. Bruccoli & Park Bucker, ed.)
* "God's Lonely Man" (undated essay)

===Poetry===
* ''A Stone, a Leaf, a Door'' (1945; a collection of  Wolfe's prose which was selected and respaced as a series of poems)

''Look Homeward, Angel'' and ''Of Time and the River'' were published in [[Armed Services Edition]]s during World War II.

===Short fiction===
{| class="wikitable"
|+
|-
! Title !! Publication !! Collected in
|-
| "An Angel on the Porch" || ''[[Scribner's Magazine|Scribner's]]'' (August 1929) || from ''Look Homeward, Angel''
|-
| "A Portrait of Bascom Hawke" || ''Scribner's'' (April 1932) || from ''Of Time and the River''
|-
| "The Web of Earth" || ''Scribner's'' (July 1932) || ''From Death to Morning''
|-
| "The Train and the City" || ''Scribner's'' (May 1933) || from ''Of Time and the River''
|-
| "Death the Proud Brother" || ''Scribner's'' (June 1933) || rowspan=3| ''From Death to Morning''
|-
| "No Door" || ''Scribner's'' (July 1933)
|-
| "The Four Lost Men" || ''Scribner's'' (February 1934)
|-
| "Boom Town" || ''[[The American Mercury]]'' (May 1934) || from ''You Can't Go Home Again''
|-
| "The Sun and the Rain" || ''Scribner's'' (May 1934) || rowspan=2| from ''Of Time and the River''
|-
| "The House of the Far and Lost" || ''Scribner's'' (August 1934)
|-
| "Dark in the Forest, Strange as Time" || ''Scribner's'' (November 1934) || ''From Death to Morning''
|-
| "The Names of the Nation" || ''[[Modern Quarterly (American magazine)|Modern Monthly]]'' (December 1934) || rowspan=2| from ''Of Time and the River''
|-
| "For Professional Appearance" || ''Modern Monthly'' (January 1935)
|-
| "One of the Girls in Our Party" || ''Scribner's'' (January 1935) || rowspan=2| ''From Death to Morning''
|-
| "Circus at Dawn" || ''Modern Monthly'' (March 1935)
|-
| "His Father's Earth" || ''Modern Monthly'' (April 1935) || from ''The Web and the Rock''
|-
| "Old Catawba" || ''[[Virginia Quarterly Review]]'' 11.2 (April 1935) || ''From Death to Morning''
|-
| "Arnold Pentland"<br>aka "A Kinsman of His Blood" || ''[[Esquire (magazine)|Esquire]]'' (June 1935) || ''The Hills Beyond''
|-
| "In the Park" || ''[[Harper's Bazaar]]'' (June 1935) || rowspan=7| ''From Death to Morning''
|-
| "The Face of the War" || ''Modern Monthly'' (June 1935)
|-
| "Polyphemus" || ''[[North American Review]]'' 240.1 (June 1935)
|-
| "Gulliver, the Story of a Tall Man" || ''Scribner's'' (June 1935)
|-
| "Only the Dead Know Brooklyn" || ''[[The New Yorker]]'' (June 15, 1935)
|-
| "The Far and Near"<br>aka "Cottage by the Tracks" || ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' (July 1935)
|-
| "The Bums at Sunset" || ''[[Vanity Fair (magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' (October 1935)
|-
| "The Bell Remembered" || ''The American Mercury'' (August 1936) || ''The Hills Beyond''
|-
| "Fame and the Poet" || ''The American Mercury'' (October 1936) || ''The Complete Short Stories''
|-
| "I Have a Thing to Tell You" || ''[[The New Republic]]'' (March 10, 1937) || from ''You Can't Go Home Again''
|-
| "Mr. Malone" || ''The New Yorker'' (May 29, 1937) || rowspan=2| from ''The Web and the Rock''
|-
| "Oktoberfest" || ''Scribner's'' (June 1937)
|-
| "'E, a Recollection" || ''The New Yorker'' (July 17, 1937) || from ''You Can't Go Home Again''
|-
| "April, Late April" || ''The American Mercury'' (September 1937) || rowspan=2| from ''The Web and the Rock''
|-
| "The Child by Tiger" || ''[[The Saturday Evening Post]]'' (September 11, 1937)
|-
| "Katamoto" || ''Harper's Bazaar'' (October 1937) || from ''You Can't Go Home Again''
|-
| "The Lost Boy" || ''[[Redbook]]'' (November 1937) || rowspan=2| ''The Hills Beyond''
|-
| "Chickamauga" || ''[[The Yale Review]]'' (Winter 1938)
|-
| "The Company" || ''[[The New Masses]]'' (January 11, 1938) || from ''You Can't Go Home Again''
|-
| "A Prologue to America" || ''[[Vogue (magazine)|Vogue]]'' (February 1, 1938) || from ''The Web and the Rock''
|-
| "Portrait of a Literary Critic" || ''The American Mercury'' (April 1939) || ''The Hills Beyond''
|-
| "The Party at Jack's" || ''Scribner's'' (May 1939) || from ''You Can't Go Home Again''
|-
| "The Winter of Our Discontent" || ''[[The Atlantic]]'' (June 1939) || rowspan=4| from ''The Web and the Rock''
|-
| "The Birthday" || ''Harper's'' (June 1939)
|-
| "The Golden City" || ''Harper's Bazaar'' (June 1939)
|-
| "Three O'Clock" || ''North American Review'' 247.2 (Summer 1939)
|-
| "The Hollyhock Sowers" || ''The American Mercury'' (August 1940) || rowspan=6| from ''You Can't Go Home Again''
|-
| "The Dark Messiah" || ''[[Current History & Forum]]'' (August 1940)
|-
| "Nebraska Crane" || ''Harper's'' (August 1940)
|-
| "So This Is Man" || ''[[Town & Country (magazine)|Town & Country]]'' (August 1940)
|-
| "The Promise of America" || ''[[Coronet (magazine)|Coronet]]'' (September 1940)
|-
| "The Hollow Men" || ''Esquire'' (October 1940)
|-
| "The Anatomy of Loneliness" || ''The American Mercury'' (October 1941) || rowspan=7| ''The Hills Beyond''
|-
| "The Lion at Morning" || ''Harper's Bazaar'' (October 1941)
|-
| "The Plumed Knight" || ''Town & Country'' (October 1941)
|-
| "The Newspaper"<br>aka "Gentlemen of the Press" || rowspan=4| ''The Hills Beyond'' (1941)
|-
| "No Cure For It"
|-
| "On Leprechauns"
|-
| "The Return of the Prodigal"
|-
| "Old Man Rivers" || ''The Atlantic'' (December 1947) || rowspan=4| ''The Complete Short Stories''
|-
| "Justice Is Blind" || ''The Enigma of Thomas Wolfe'' (1953)
|-
| "No More Rivers" || ''Beyond Love and Loyalty'' (1983)
|-
| "The Spanish Letter" || ''The Complete Short Stories'' (1987)
|-
|}

==Bilingual works==
* Those who know Brooklyn / Wer Brooklyn kennt. [[Calambac Publishing House]], Germany 2024, bilingual edition: English/German, ISBN 978-3-943117-30-1.

==See also==
* [[North Carolina literature]]
* [[University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]]
* [[Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last= Holman |first= C. Hugh |title= Thomas Wolfe |url= https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00holm |url-access= registration |author-link= C. Hugh Holman |date= 1960 |publisher= University of Minnesota Press |location= Minneapolis |oclc= 974192504}}
*{{cite book |last= Holman |first= C. Hugh |title= The Thomas Wolfe Reader |date= 1962 |publisher= Charles Scribner's |location= New York, NY |oclc= 796896836}}
*{{cite book |last= Holman |first= C. Hugh |title= Three Modes of Modern Southern Fiction: Ellen Glasgow, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe |url= https://archive.org/details/threemodesofmode00holm |url-access= registration |date= 1966 |publisher= University of Georgia Press |location= Athens, GA |oclc= 859825215}}
*{{cite book |last1= Holman |first1= C. Hugh |last2=Ross |first2= Sue Fields |title= The Letters of Thomas Wolfe |date= 1968 |publisher= University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Press |location= Chapel Hill, NC |oclc= 257949485}}
*{{cite book |last= Holman |first= C. Hugh |title= The Loneliness and the Core: Studies in Thomas Wolfe |url= https://archive.org/details/lonelinessatcore00holm |url-access= registration |date= 1975 |publisher= Louisiana State University Press |location= Baton Rouge, LA |isbn= 9780807100851 |oclc= 469892061}}
*{{cite book |last= Turnbull |first= Andrew |title= Thomas Wolfe |url= https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe000turn |url-access= registration |date= 1967 |publisher= Charles Scribner's Sons |location= New York, NY }}
*{{cite book |last= Reeves |first= Paschal |title= Thomas Wolfe's Albatross: Race and Nationality in America |date= 1974 |publisher= Ayer Publishing |location= North Stratford, NH }}
*{{cite book |last= Reeves |first= Paschal |title= Thomas Wolfe: The Critical Reception |url= https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfesalba00pasc |url-access= registration |date= 1968 |publisher= University of Georgia Press |location= Athens, GA }}
*{{cite book |last =Berg |first= A. Scott |author-link= Andrew Scott Berg |title= Max Perkins: Editor of Genius |date= 1978 |publisher= Riverhead Trade |location= New York, NY |isbn= 978-1-57322-621-9}}
*{{cite book |last= Donald |first= David Herbert |title= Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe |date= 1987 |publisher= Little, Brown & Company |location= Boston, MA }}
*{{cite book |last= Mitchell |first= Ted |title= Thomas Wolfe: A Writer's Life |date= 1997 |edition=  1st |publisher= Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site |location= Asheville, NC }}
*{{cite book |last= Mitchell |first= Ted |title= Thomas Wolfe: A Writer's Life |date= 1999 |edition=  Revised | publisher= North Carolina Div of Archives |location= Raleigh, NC |isbn= 978-0-86526-286-7}}
*{{cite book |editor1-last= Bruccoli |editor1-first= Matthew J. |editor2-last= Baughman |editor2-first= Judith S. |title= The Sons of Maxwell Perkins: The Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and Their Editor |date= 2004 |publisher= University of South Carolina Press |location= Columbia, SC |isbn= 978-1-57003-548-7}}
*{{cite book |last= Mitchell |first= Ted |title= Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography |date= 2006 |publisher= Pegasus Books |location= New York, NY |isbn= 978-1-933648-10-1 |url= https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00tedm }}
*{{cite book |last= Mitchell |first= Ted |title= Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography |date= 2006 |publisher= Pegasus Books |location= New York, NY |isbn= 978-1-933648-10-1 |url= https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfe00tedm }}
*{{cite book |last= Mauldin |first= Joanne Marshall |title= Thomas Wolfe: When Do the Atrocities Begin? |date= 2007 |publisher= University of Tennessee Press |location= Knoxville, TN |isbn= 978-1-57233-494-6 |url= https://archive.org/details/thomaswolfewhend00maul }}
*{{cite journal |last= Radavich |first= David |date= 2011 |title= A Stone, a Leaf, a Door: The Narrative Poetics of Thomas Wolfe |url= https://www.thomaswolfereview.org/2011-issue/ |journal= The Thomas Wolfe Review |volume= 35 |issue= 1–2 |pages= 7–21 |access-date= June 10, 2019}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote|Thomas Wolfe}}
{{commons|Thomas Wolfe|Thomas Wolfe}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Wolfe, Thomas|name=Thomas Wolfe|author=yes}}
*[http://gutenberg.net.au/plusfifty-n-z.html#wolfe Works by Thomas Wolfe at Project Gutenberg Australia]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070917094729/http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/wolfe/bio.htm North Carolina Office of Archives and History - A Brief Biography of Thomas Wolfe]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20081120104813/http://www.nchistoricsites.org/wolfe/album.htm A Wolfe Family Album]
*[http://www.thomaswolfe.org The Thomas Wolfe Web Site]
*[http://www.wolfememorial.com Thomas Wolfe Memorial]
*[http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/tw/tw.html The Thomas Wolfe Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]
*[http://specialcollections.wichita.edu/Collections/ms/75-14/75-14-A.HTML Thomas Wolfe Papers at Wichita State University]

{{Thomas Wolfe}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolfe, Thomas}}
[[Category:Thomas Wolfe| ]]
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1938 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:American people of German descent]]
[[Category:American people of Pennsylvania Dutch descent]]
[[Category:Burials at Riverside Cemetery (Asheville, North Carolina)]]
[[Category:Harvard University alumni]]
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[[Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis]]
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[[Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni]]
[[Category:Novelists from North Carolina]]
[[Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Maryland]]
[[Category:Lost Generation writers]]
[[Category:Members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters]]