Wolfe, Thomas. (1900 - 1938).

L i f e

- born in a small town in North Carolina > portrayed in his fiction under the name Altamont

- after taking a university degree travelled widely both US and Europe and wrote

W o r k

- concerned with his self, life, and America

- desired to live, learn, and experience everything, then to capture it in writing

- did not follow any literary form or tradition, wrote spontaneously in a rich and emotional style

- produced an unorganised mixture of immediate impressions and had it ordered by his editor into novels

- experimental in his style x but: within the Transcendentalist tradition in his message

E d i t o r  M a x w e l l  P e r k i n s :

Look Homeward, Angel (1929):

<=> W. Whitman

- claimed each honest narrative to be autobiographical, and the only heroic life he knew thoroughly to be his own

- attempted to contain a multitude and to create a symbolical myth centred around his transcendental self

- described the troubles of a young confused boy => popular among young readers

Of Time and the River (1935):

- a sequel describing the boy’s studies and growing up

- less popular

E d i t o r  E d w a r d  C .  A s w e l l :

- the change of the editor resulted in a different mode of the novels

The Web and the Rock (1939):

- described the youth of another boy

- the title: ‘the web’ of tradition, and ‘the rock’ of the contemporary town

You Can’t Go Home Again (1940):

- described his estrangement from the native country

- travelled Europe, began to realise the political problems of Nazism x but: preserved his optimism