Thomas Clayton Wolfe Essay Example

1920. That September, he enrolled in the Graduate School for Arts and Sciences at Harvard University to pursue an M. degree.

In 1921, Tennessee Williams enrolled in an English program at Harvard and studied playwriting with George Pierce Baker. The 47 Workshop at Harvard performed two versions of his play, The Mountains. The following year, in 1922, he fulfilled the requirements for his M.A.

Despite the significant impact of his father's death in June, which occurred during the year he received his degree in Asheville, Wolfe continued his studies with Baker in the 47 Workshop. During this time, he wrote Welcome to Our City - a ten-scene play that was produced in May 1923. In November of that same year, Wolfe traveled to New York City to raise funds for his alma mater - the University of North Carolina. By February 1924, he had begun teaching English as an instructor at Washington Square College of New York University and intermittently fulfilled this role until January 1930.

During October 1924, the teacher traveled to Europe seven times and explored France, Italy, and Switzerland. Upon his arrival back in America in 1925, his students commended him for his hard work and achievements. That year, he also met Mrs. Aline Bernstein who was a scenic designer for the Theater Guild and married to a successful stockbroker despite being eighteen years older than him. Despite their turbulent extramarital relationship that began in October 1925, it had a significant impact on his life.

In 1926, they returned to Europe for the summer to commence work on their book, Look Homeward, Angel. The subsequent year, in 1927's summer, he embarked on his

third European journey and explored France, Austria, and Germany. On March 31st of 1928, they completed the manuscript for Look Homeward, Angel. During that same summer - their fourth European trip - an altercation at Munich's Oktobertest resulted in injuries and news of Scribner's interest in publishing their book. In January of the following year, the publication was accepted for release by editor Maxwell Perkins; this marked the beginning of a lengthy and complicated relationship between them.

There is an exaggeration regarding how much Perkins edited the manuscript. The novel was published on October 8th, 1929 and remained true to Wolfe's original plan more closely than any of his other lengthy works. Despite modest sales, it was critically acclaimed and also designated Wolfe as the most talented young American novelist. Wolfe received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1930 and went on his fifth European tour.

After returning in the late spring of 1931, he resided in Brooklyn and ended his tumultuous affair with Mrs. Bernstein the following year. Perkins took his second novel, K-19, out of production and left it unpublished. A Portraintof Bascom Hawke, his short novel, was co-winner of the $5,000 Scribner's Short Novel Prize after being published in Scribner's Magazine. In July, he released Web of Earth, which is considered one of his finest works.

Between 1932 and 1935, Wolfe worked on three books that were planned for release: K-19, No Door (a short novel), and a collection of three short novels. However, Perkins - Wolfe's editor - was insistent that he produce a long novel that continued the story of Eugene Gant (the main character from Look Homeward, Angel). Despite struggling with the large book,

Wolfe managed to publish several excellent short stories and short novels. In 1933, Perkins began working with Wolfe on the "big book" daily, and eventually, in July 1934, sent the manuscript of Of Time and the River to publishers against Wolfe's wishes. When the book was released, Wolfe was bitter about its structure and claimed that he could have improved it if given the chance.

Despite receiving mostly positive reviews, the work was criticized for being disorganized and sprawling. In 1935, the author attended the Writer's Conference in Boulder, Colorado and delivered a speech that was later serialized in the Saturday Review of Literature and published as a book titled The Story of a Novel. This work chronicles the difficulties he faced while writing Of Time and the River. Additionally, in November 1935, a collection of short novels and stories entitled From Death to Morning was published.

In 1935 and 1936, Thomas Wolfe visited Germany for his sixth and seventh trips to Europe. His popularity in the country stemmed from translations of his works. However, during a train ride departing Berlin in 1936, he encountered a Jewish person attempting to flee Germany. This encounter led him to recognize the cruel nature of the Nazi regime. Upon returning home, Wolfe wrote "I Have a Thing To Tell You," which was serialized in the New Republic and became part of his novel You Can't Go Home Again.

During this time, Wolfe's relationship with publisher Charles Scribner's Sons became strained due to his perception that editor Perkins prevented him from writing what he truly wanted. Additionally, Scribner did not defend him in a libel suit. Furthermore, he was unhappy about

being seen as a formless writer whose works were shaped by his editor after Of Time and the River and The Story of a Novel were published. This disagreement with Scribner's lasted until December of 1937 when he signed on with Edward C.Aswell of Harper and Brothers for future publication.

Despite the emotional turbulence during this time, it was a productive period for Wolfe in terms of getting his work published. His short stories were featured in various journals including the New Republic, the New Yorker, Scribner's, American Mercury, Harpers Bazaar, the Yale Review, and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1938, he embarked on a western tour and entrusted his manuscript materials to new editor Edward C. Aswell. On his way to the west coast, he stopped at Purdue University to give a lecture titled "Writing and Living", which was later published in 1964. However, Wolfe fell ill while in Seattle in July of that same year and was sent to Johns Hopkins University Hospital, where he ultimately passed away from brain tuberculosis on September 6th. Tragically, he was only thirty-seven years old at the time of his death.

Edward Aswell compiled two novels, The Web and the Rock and You Can't Go Home Again, and published them in 1939 and 1940 after Wolfe's death. Additionally, a short story collection and fragments of a novel were published as The Hills Beyond in 1941. Aswell based his work on Wolfe's manuscripts in order to organize the enormous yet unfinished collection of material Wolfe had left. The Web and the Rock follows a new protagonist, George Webber, and is basically the novel that Wolfe would have produced, though

the latter two-thirds may have undergone significant revisions. You Can't Go Home Again, which also features Webber, is mostly comprised of materials with narrative links written by Aswell to connect the gaps.

Only Wolfe's short stories, short novels, and Look Homeward, Angel contain his original organizational input. Of Time and the River was heavily influenced by Maxwell Perkins and presented in third-person, despite being mostly written in first-person by Wolfe. The final two novels were shaped by Aswell using just Wolfe's outline. In 1991, The University of North Carolina Press and Paul Gitlin released The Good Child's River, an unfinished novel loosely based on Aline Bernstein's early life, with edited sections published posthumously.

Wolfe authored The Good Child's River, which includes some fragments in two appendixes that may have been intended for the final version. He was a skilled writer with an abundance of energy and imaginative talent, characterized by a lavish rhetorical style and remarkable command of language. His writing primarily focused on his own experiences as an American, akin to Walt Whitman, endeavoring to define and clarify what it meant to be an American through self-reflection. Although his works tend to be excessive and exuberant, only Look Homeward, Angel followed his desired structure. Consequently, Wolfe is believed to be a gifted but uncontrolled writer who struggled with managing the composition of his novels.

Thomas Wolfe was once thought to lack artistic control in his writing, but this idea is contradicted by his thirty-two short stories and seven short novels. Despite the brevity of these works, he demonstrated his ability to organize stories effectively. However, when he tried to assemble them into larger structures, such as

those imposed on him by Perkins in the early 1930s, his lack of artistic control became apparent. Wolfe's subject matter always pertained to his own experiences which he transformed through imagination and elevated with powerful rhetoric. He aimed to encapsulate himself fully on record through fiction - an accomplishment regarded as magnificent in American literature. At the time of his death, he was among the top three or four twentieth-century American novelists. Although Wolfe's critical reputation has declined since then (he died in 1938), language mastery, strong characterizations, and ability to convey youthful experiences and emotions all solidify his place in American writing history.