Tom Wolfe facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Tom Wolfe
Wolfe in 1988
Born	Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (1930-03-02)March 2, 1930 Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Died	May 14, 2018(2018-05-14) (aged 88) New York City, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Journalist author
Education	Washington and Lee University (BA) Yale University (PhD)
Period	1959–2016
Literary movement	New Journalism
Spouse	Sheila Berger ​ (m. 1978)​
Children	2

Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018) was an American author and journalist. He was famous for a writing style called New Journalism. This style mixed news reporting with creative storytelling techniques. It became popular in the 1960s and 1970s.

Wolfe started as a newspaper reporter in the 1950s. He became well-known in the 1960s. This was after he published best-selling books. These included The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, a unique book about Ken Kesey. He also released two collections of articles and essays. These were Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.

In 1979, he published The Right Stuff. This book was about the Mercury Seven astronauts. It was made into a 1983 movie directed by Philip Kaufman.

His first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, came out in 1987. It was praised by critics and sold very well. A movie based on it, directed by Brian De Palma, was not as successful.

Growing Up and School

Wolfe was born on March 2, 1930, in Richmond, Virginia. His mother, Helen Perkins Hughes Wolfe, designed gardens. His father, Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Sr., was an expert in farming and an editor.

He grew up in the Sherwood Park neighborhood of Richmond. He was student council president at St. Christopher's School. He also edited the school newspaper and was a good baseball player.

After high school in 1947, he chose to attend Washington and Lee University. He studied English and was the sports editor for the college newspaper. He also helped start a literary magazine called Shenandoah. This gave him many chances to practice writing. His professor, Marshall Fishwick, taught him to study cultures deeply. Wolfe graduated with honors in 1951.

Wolfe continued playing baseball in college. He even played semi-professionally. In 1952, he tried out for the New York Giants baseball team. But he was cut after three days. He then decided to study at Yale University. He earned a PhD in American studies. His thesis was about a group of American writers.

Journalism and New Journalism

Wolfe chose to work as a reporter instead of teaching. In 1956, he became a reporter for the Springfield Union. In 1959, he joined The Washington Post. He won awards for his foreign reporting from Cuba and for humor. At the Post, Wolfe started trying out fiction-writing styles in his news stories.

In 1962, Wolfe moved to New York City. He worked for the New York Herald Tribune. Editors there encouraged writers to try new ways of reporting. Wolfe gained attention in 1963 for an article about George Ohsawa.

During a newspaper strike, Wolfe wrote an article for Esquire magazine. It was about the car culture in California. His editor published his notes as the story. This article, "There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby," became very famous. It helped him publish his first book of collected writings.

This new style of writing was what Wolfe called New Journalism. Journalists used literary techniques in their reports. Wolfe used four main techniques:

• Building stories scene by scene.
• Using lots of dialogue.
• Showing different points of view.
• Describing details about people's lives and things they owned.

Wolfe also used "saturation reporting." This meant he would spend a long time with the people he was writing about. He would observe them closely. This was different from just interviewing people or reading documents. He wanted to be a "fully reactive witness."

In 1973, Wolfe edited a book called The New Journalism. It included works by other famous writers. The book showed how journalism could also be considered literature.

Non-fiction Books

In 1965, Wolfe published The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. This book made him even more famous. He published another collection, The Pump House Gang, in 1968. Wolfe wrote about popular culture, buildings, and politics. He showed how American life changed after World War II.

His most famous work from this time is The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). Many people felt it captured the spirit of the 1960s. Wolfe became a key figure of that decade.

In 1970, he published Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. "Radical Chic" was about a party given by Leonard Bernstein. It aimed to raise money for the Black Panther Party. Wolfe's phrase "radical chic" became a popular term. His book Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1977) included his essay The "Me" Decade and the Third Great Awakening.

The Mercury Seven astronauts were the subject of The Right Stuff.

In 1979, Wolfe published The Right Stuff. It told the story of America's first astronauts. He described them as heroes battling in the Space Race. The book was made into a movie in 1983.

In 2016, Wolfe published The Kingdom of Speech. This book looked at the ideas of Charles Darwin and Noam Chomsky. Wolfe suggested that human speech is an invention. Some critics disagreed with his views on how humans developed speech.

Writing About Art and Buildings

Wolfe also wrote two books criticizing modern art and modern architecture. These were The Painted Word (1975) and From Bauhaus to Our House (1981). The Painted Word made fun of the art world. From Bauhaus to Our House explored what he saw as the negative effects of the Bauhaus style on modern buildings.

TV and Movies

In 1977, PBS made a TV movie called Tom Wolfe's Los Angeles. Wolfe appeared in the movie as himself.

Novels

Wolfe always wanted to write a novel about American society. He was inspired by books like Vanity Fair. In 1981, he stopped other work to focus on his novel.

He researched his novel by watching court cases in New York. He also spent time with police officers. Writing was hard at first. To help himself, Wolfe decided to publish his novel in parts. He published a new part every two weeks in Rolling Stone magazine from 1984 to 1985.

Wolfe then revised his work for two years. His novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, was published in 1987. It was a big success. It stayed on bestseller lists for weeks.

His second novel, A Man in Full, took him over 11 years to finish. It was published in 1998. The book received mixed reviews. It was number one on The New York Times bestseller list for ten weeks. Some authors, like John Updike, criticized it. This led to a public debate between Wolfe and other writers. In 2021, Netflix decided to adapt the novel into a TV series.

In 2001, Wolfe published an essay called "My Three Stooges." He also released Hooking Up, a collection of short pieces.

Wolfe said his goal in writing fiction was to show contemporary society. He wanted to follow in the footsteps of writers like Charles Dickens.

His fourth novel, Back to Blood, was published in 2012. It was about "class, family, wealth, race, crime, corruption and ambition in Miami." The book received mixed reviews.

Main Ideas in His Writing

Throughout his career, Wolfe was interested in how people compete for social status.

Much of his later work also looked at neuroscience. He explored this topic in his essay "Sorry, Your Soul Just Died." It also appeared in his novel I Am Charlotte Simmons. Wolfe often described characters' thoughts and feelings using scientific terms.

His White Suit

Wolfe started wearing a white suit as his trademark in 1962. He bought his first white suit for summer. But it was too heavy, so he wore it in winter. This caused a stir because white suits were usually only for summer. Wolfe kept wearing white suits. He sometimes added a white tie and hat. He said the outfit made people see him as "a man from Mars." This made them more open to him.

His Opinions

Wolfe at the White House, 2004

In 1989, Wolfe wrote an essay called "Stalking the Billion-Footed Beast." He criticized modern American novelists. He felt they did not fully explore their subjects. He suggested that literature could improve by using more journalistic techniques.

Wolfe supported George W. Bush as a political candidate. He voted for him in 2004. He admired Bush's "great decisiveness." Bush also admired Wolfe's books.

Wolfe's views sometimes led to him being called conservative. For example, he criticized left-wing thinkers in Radical Chic. He also praised astronauts in The Right Stuff. A member of the Black Panther Party called him a racist. Wolfe rejected such labels. He said his idol was Émile Zola, a writer who "went out, and found a lot of ambitious, slothful and mean people out there."

In 2007, Wolfe shared his thoughts on blogs. He called them a "universe of rumors." He also criticized Wikipedia. He said that "only a primitive would believe a word of" it. He pointed out a mistake in his own Wikipedia page at the time.

Wolfe was an atheist. But he said he disliked people who openly declared they were atheists. He was raised as a Presbyterian. He sometimes called himself a "lapsed Presbyterian."

Personal Life

Wolfe lived in New York City with his wife, Sheila. She designed covers for Harper's Magazine. They had two children: a daughter, Alexandra, and a son, Thomas Kennerly III.

Death and Legacy

Wolfe died from an infection in Manhattan on May 14, 2018. He was 88 years old.

Historian Meredith Hindley said Wolfe introduced several terms into the English lexicon. These include "statusphere," "the right stuff," "radical chic," and "the Me Decade."

Wolfe was sometimes wrongly credited with coining "trophy wife." His term for very thin women in The Bonfire of the Vanities was "social X-rays."

Journalism professor Ben Yagoda noted Wolfe's influence. Wolfe started using the present tense in magazine profiles. Before him, these articles were always written in the past tense.

Awards and Honors

TV and Film Appearances

• Wolfe's legs appeared in John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 film Up Your Legs Forever.
• Wolfe was interviewed in the 1987 PBS documentary series Space Flight.
• In July 1975, Wolfe was interviewed on Firing Line about The Painted Word.
• Wolfe was featured on the February 2006 episode "The White Stuff" of Speed Channel's Unique Whips. His Cadillac's interior was customized to match his white suit.
• Wolfe guest-starred in The Simpsons episode "Moe'N'a Lisa" in 2006. He was also a sight gag in "Insane Clown Poppy" in 2000. The episode "Flanders' Ladder" was dedicated to his memory.

See also

In Spanish: Tom Wolfe para niños

• Creative nonfiction
• Hysterical realism
• Wolfe's concept of fiction-absolute