Ugh at the nauseating comments love fest. Tom Wolfe maligned the sublime horror of Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial as “a monument to Jane Fonda”; enthusiastically supported Bush well after our grotesque misadventure in Iraq; torched Darwin in a “bonfire of facts” (thank you, Steven Poole); spoke affectionately of Trump as a “lovable megalomaniac” during the presidential campaign, etc. It’s typical of a certain kind of liberal to fall over himself lavishing unqualified praise on his critic, excusing the inexcusable as endearing eccentricities. As if he’s somehow different from the targets of Wolfe’s ridicule. (Unless he’s worse...)
Didn't Tom Wolfe write the fascinating essay "Operation Rat Sink"? One of the best essays I ever read.
1
Although I was much more entranced with his new journalism contemporaries, Hunter S Thompson and Norman Mailer, I thoroughly enjoyed Tom Wolfe's work, particularly The Right Stuff and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, two of the most important books written about the 50s/60s and indeed about America in the 20th century. His contribution to modern literature and our understanding of the world at that remarkable time was incalculable.
3
Read from Bauhaus to Our House while spending a month in Florence, Italy. Without a doubt the best take down of the banality that is 20th Century corporatist architecture.
3
So well written by By Deirdre Carmody and William Grimes.
A fitting epitath to the journalism of Tim Wolf, one of my life-long favotire authors. Thank you.
3
Not merely a great writer. Merely a great writer who also managed to get in the last laugh by transcending his countless 'critics.'
3
Last night I read Tom Wolfe’s obituary on my iPhone X. I looked at each small image one at a time, scrolling from the top of the article to the bottom. I was on a public bus, so this was a convenient way to read the moving tribute.
This morning I read the same article but in the print edition. Befitting its outsized subject, the obit spilled from the front page to two full pages inside. The large portrait of Mr. Wolfe conveyed his giant personality much more effectively than the pocket-sized digital version did.
I’m no Luddite, but I remain grateful that The New York Times is still available on paper to bring to life stories of the dead and more. There is no substitute for a newspaper in its traditional form.
8
It tickles me that an obit written about a WRITER by a WRITER is the longest obit I have ever read in this paper. Tom was extraordinary. I thought "The Right Stuff" both the book and movie were rich, beautiful, sociologically enlightening pieces of work. Who would have had the time to date/marry with all of his literary output until the age of 48. His was a life well lived filled with originality for the rest of us. What a gift.
6
Met him twice, including about three years ago, to help him prepare remarks for an event. Gracious, funny, and unpretentious.
4
Having actually worked professionally with Mr. Wolfe as an architect, and also based on “From Our House to Bauhaus” and his many other published thoughts on art and architecture I will offer this: Tom Wolfe was, like any of the very best journalists, an extremely keen observer. He dependably drew from his observations razor sharp insights and socio-political-philosophical conclusions which helped us all to make more sense of this crazy world of ours, and not to mention, make us laugh. And really in the end, what’s more important than being entertained and having a good laugh? I truly think he was far too smart to have not “gotten” abstract art and modern architecture. After all, it’s a lot more fun to pretend not to, and poke fun at it, and you’ll have a much bigger audience on your side. Besides being a great writer, Tom was also the cleverest of imps. And we are all richer for it.
8
Let's be clear, only a certain trendy insecure type of liberal supported the Black Panthers. Such described here paved the way for the likes of Patty Hearst.
3
I only knew Tom Wolfe through his writing but his personal character shone through his descriptions of his subjects and social sets. I read all of his published books. How I wish there were more to come. Tom Wolfe inspired me with his stories of the right stuff in people and characters from Chuck Yeager to Nestor Camacho and entertained me with the wrong stuff, or weird stuff, or sad stuff in the people and characters he lampooned like the "radical chic", "social x-rays", Sherman McCoy and Hoyt Thorpe. Thank you Tom Wolfe!
9
Feels like a death in the family.
12
I only read one Wolfe book “From Bauhaus to Our House” which was a lazy, shallow straw man argument against a modern movement he didn’t care to research before writing about—setting up a false binaries for the purpose of narrative. It’s too bad this generic caricature is the go to template for lazy journalists.
But I am a bit nostalgic for a time when writers like Wolfe could command the culture with witty prose. It’s just too bad his fire wasn’t aimed at the hapless bureaucrats that failed to implement the ideals of good modern design. It ended up coming off a bit elitist and racist—like hating a little too hard on jazz or rap based on one vulgar rapper — we get it.
3
There is no doubt he would have had a hard, if not, impossible time, getting Radical Chic & Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers published today. The NYC Westside Limousine Liberals he so bitingly skewered in that and most of his other works now control the media and academia. Even more telling, were he to be invited to any major institution of higher learning to give a speech, he would draw the wrath of the Leftist cabal who now set the agendas at these places and his appearance would be prevented or disrupted as those of other Conservative or middle-of-the-Road Democrats like Ben Shapiro have been.
7
If only he had chosen to live in Houston, you could claim him as one of your own. But oddly, he didn't.
2
Like everyone else I fell in love with Wolfe's early jaunty, breezy work for its indelible humor and ranting style. As teens, we ate this stuff up. It was journalistic fun and terribly new and creative.
But it also ushered in a plethora of snarky, mean-spirited and cruel imitators and I think lead us to where we are today. His work gave birth to People Magazine writing of celebrities as news, and to descriptive rather than deductive narrative. All surface and a tad of depth.
He likewise was the original self-branding guy, the sartorial style part of "his brand." He was clever, no doubt, but rode the zeitgeist of emptiness and made it seem cool, the original style over substance.
These days I look everywhere for the roots of our present social and political horrors, the destruction of ideas and values, the rise of close-mindedness. Forgive me if I give it all too much thought.
6
I've read a lot of Tom Wolfe's work and enjoyed everything. I will miss him.
3
Those were the days! Wolfe's writing enticed me to become an Esquire subscriber . . . until this year when I realized writing was apparently no longer a priority with that mag. However, many thanks to Esky of long ago for bringing Wolfe to public (and my) attention.
4
I could barely wait to read anything released by Tom Wolfe. And I was never disappointed! Even novels given unfavorable reviews I found enjoyable.
2
One of my favorite quotes from “Bonfire of the Vanities”, is the line describing the all-permeating greed in the bond market as - “... the sound of well-educated young white men baying for money...” Although it was written in the 80’s and although the men are now a bit older, without realizing it, Wolfe could not have written a more perfect description of Trump and his administration.
5
Every writer has one book that defines his career. For F. Scott Fitzgerald, it was "The Great Gatsby." For John Steinbeck, it was "The Grapes of Wrath." For Margaret Mitchell, it was her
only" novel.
For Tom Wolfe, he will be long be remembered for "The Bonfire of the Vanities" (the movie version has long since been forgotten, thankfully).
All the other titles mentioned in this obit, while important at the time of its publication, will ultimately be forgotten. He was known more his style and "decorum" than he was for his writings... much like Truman Capote ("In Cold Blood", always wearing White, and don't forget the signature hat).
4
"Neo-pretentious"---gotta love it. I hate that Wolfe is gone; we need his voice to memorialize the idiocy of the Trump administration and the creepy crew that is thriving from it. Can't you hear his lines now describing the Kushners, Pruitt, "The Mooch" and all the other disasters in literary disguises?
On a more serious note, I rarely agreed with William F. Buckley on anything, but I certainly agree with him on the quality of Wolfe's prose and its impact. As a high school English teacher at a Washington, DC area "elite" boys school for the Upper Northwest politicos and literati, I had my students read the "Masters of the Universe" chapter to curtail their greed. The boys always "got it" and it was the one novel that they wanted to read all of----never had to beg them.
Rest in peace, Tom, hopefully in your beautiful white suit. Hope more American writers of conscience will follow you.
12
Nah.....his career and his writings mocked the Liberal elites of NYC and the West Coast. His personal politics reflected his upbringing and convictions, a Conservative Southerner who was firmly grounded in traditional mores.
3
Not generally thought of as a man of the South, he surely was that. The words, from a speakers platform or on the pages of his books, were Southern much like those of of another "desperate Southern gentleman," Hunter S. Thompson. His masterful novel, "A Man in Full," made many bloated egos in my hometown of Atlanta uncomfortable, earning some lovely outrage. Wolfe took no prisoners, played no favorites and left the reader richly entertained.
6
Love him(sometimes I did) or hate him(that too) he was Tom Wolfe. RIP.
6
In light of #metoo, the prescience of his underrated I Am Charlotte Simmons demands another look.
I've always thought Tom Wolfe should never be compared to Mailer or Updike but rather, to that other great chronicler of the American fabric -- Mark Twain.
9
Tom Wolfe's revenge. Historian David Potter (of Yale and later Stanford) once told me about supervising Tom Wolfe's undergraduate thesis when Wolfe attended Yale (I think it was his senior thesis and and not a grad thesis). Potter said that it was brilliant--and also funny, biting, and iconoclastic. The thesis committee rejected it. Not enough citations, not sufficiently academic. So Wolfe, according to Potter, rewrote the thing, this time including the usual scholarly paraphernalia and removing every colorful sentence. He turned the thesis into a routine and crushingly dull academic exercise. And that was Wolfe's farewell to Yale's history department.
2
It was his Ph.D. dissertation, not his senior thesis. He was an undergraduate at Washington & Lee, not at Yale. At the latter institution he was in American Studies, not History. I believe the gist of your anecdote is genuine, however, as I seem to recall having read it elsewhere, possibly from Tom Wolfe himself.
2
The photographs are a joy to behold. Thank you, NYT.
7
I liked Radical Chic and Bauhaus, but his masterpiece was the deconstruction of Noam Chomsky.
5
He looks so cool in the photo from 1968 Manhattan. What a great time and place to be a culture hero, it must have been so much fun.
6
How astonishingly little was made of his formative years in Virginia. His sartorial predilections were all Old Dominion in a way that table-gazing at the better brunches in Richmond still reminds. As well, undergraduate years at Washington & Lee were the perfect finishing for the sons of the new planters, even trumping William & Mary or Mr. Jefferson’s school among the ardently observant of Tradition.
And what did this do for him?
He saw power and status and race and tradition, in everything. He saw the ugly truth comingled with human beauty. And he excelled at telling the stories of subcultures misunderstood by the mainstream.
He saw the love inside of anyone’s obsession and he vivisected the indecorous.
A Southerner in New York, a journalist among novelists, an academic among populists, the proud outsider who made it further in. What a uniquely American voice.
16
Tom was a friend of our family in Richmond. As an adopted New Yorker he beamed the southern charm of his mom and erudition of his father. Who else would choose to use the Unabridged Webster's Dictionary as a middle school student at St. Christopher's school for writing class assignments? His mother Helen gave it to me as an expression of the link I shared as a transplanted Southerner from Mexico. So Tom Wolfe!
5
I had been questioning my progressive politics for some time, especially while I was completing a master's degree in philosophy. Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers so perfectly described the people I met on the Left and I finally realized it was mere posturing and posing for personal affirmation and social climbing. I gave up progressive politics once and for all after that. Thank you Mr. Wolffe
4
My introduction to Tom Wolfe was "Bonfire of the Vanities," and I could absolutely SEE the pimp rolls and the social x-rays. For years afterward, I'd see a guy walking with a pimp roll and I'd say to myself "pimp roll!" and smile inwardly. And, while I have never been to Atlanta outside its airport, a part of me assumes it is as strange and outrageous and hilarious as he depicted it in "A Man in Full." Thank you, Tom Wolfe.
2
I read Bonfire of the Vanities which made me eager to read A Man in Full, because I've lived in both places. His words described New York and Atlanta perfectly.
Then I read I Am Charlotte Simmons because North Carolina and Duke. (Plain as day to us UNC alums.) But not terribly authentic, especially Charlotte Simmons herself. More like caricature than satire.
Now I'll have to read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.
I miss Hunter S Thompson, too.
RIP, Tom Wolfe.
5
A uniquely American icon. Sorry that I will never read your version of Trumpworld. I miss you already.
3
A peerless omniscient observer of our culture who described the truth few recognized, even fewer dared reveal, and with a delightful flamboyance all his own. We have all lost a superstar.
1
for all the deserved garlands, note well: "meticulous reporting."
an inspiration to all of us, less gifted, less disciplined and yet of the same ilk, given to daily pages and not quite able to parlay a fast ball and a slider into a major league career.
1
I met Tom Wolfe after he sent an elaborate, quill-penned letter to my North Battleford, Saskatchewan postbox, asking for further information about my photos of backyard rockets and flying saucers that eventually was published as "In Advance of the Landing: Folk concepts of Outer Space". At our first face-to-face meeting at his New York brownstone, I asked him to critique several initial selections of the manuscript text - a chilling prospect in light of the esteem and prominence of his writing.
Standing barefoot, but in a peach-coloured shirt and cream suit in his dining room, Wolfe quickly reviewed the pages, and he offered them back with his trademark wry smile. "Always remember", Wolfe remarked, "Describe everything, comment on nothing." The best piece of writing/editorial advice I had ever heard and a nugget of wisdom and insight that has served me well ever since. His ease of manner and graciousness remained one of his unwavering qualities.
44
In the Spring of 2001 the team at Rolling Stone needed a pep rally, so I took all of them across the street to an empty Radio City Music hall, where the editors took the stage to tell stories of rock and roll and the literary tradition of the magazine. To cap it off, Jann Wenner walked in unannounced with Tom Wolfe. Tom told the story of how the first two serialized chapters of The Right Stuff were so good that Jann ran both of them in the same issue, causing an insane deadline crunch for Tom to write the 3rd, 4th and so on. It became an American Classic. RIP the great Tom Wolfe.
17
Tom Wolfe was one of the most politically incorrect writers in the nation. Somehow, he largely got away with it. His "Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers" and also his classic "Bonfire of the Vanities" might not get past the censors today. (Indeed, the movie "Bonfire of the Vanities" was awful and mangled because all the politically incorrect descriptions of crime and the criminal justice system had to be stripped away.) Every lawyer I know loved "Bonfire."
11
How in the world could one of your journalists use Tom Wolfe and Joan Didion in the same sentence?
Then top it off by writing that he was more “comic” than Didion.
The Onion was correct today — Tom Wolfe is right there with David Baldacci in the pantheon of the finest in American literature... If you buy that - you must think Trump will be one of greatest presidents...
Yikes...
Wolfe is our second James Gould Cozzens — “By The Vanities Possessed”.
4
There was no writer like him, and he revolutionized journalism. I’ve never laughed reading a novel as much as I did with Bonfire, as he skewered entitled masters of the universe, demagogic politicians appealing to white anxiety, racist judges and hucksters like Sharpton. Charlotte Simmons made me want to never send my daughters to college. Now I want to read The Right Stuff, A Man in Full and his last novel.
Why the criticism from Mailer and Updike? He was a far more inventive and disciplined observer than Mailer, so maybe Mailer was jealous. But Updike? I can’t fathom why Updike (like Wolfe, a genius) would criticize him. I assumed they’d admire each other. After all, Sherman McCoy and Rabbit Angstrom are just different classes of anti-heroes - they may be jerks, but you’re still hoping they don’t self-destruct.
6
I can think of no better antidote for depression than reading Tom Wolfe.
7
I liked Koolaid Acid Test. I liked Bonfire until the end. It seemed like he couldn't come up with a good ending so he just blew it all up. I was disappointed. Great writer tho.
3
If modern American literature had a "last supper' this fellow would have held the place of honor.
6
His first work I ever read was Bonfire - I loved it. He was a brilliant writer.
10
tom wolfe truman capote hunter thompson kurt vonn captured an entire era!
3
tom wolfe truman capote hunter thompson kurt vonnegut captured an entire era
I heard a lecture once by a reporter who worked with Wolfe on the Herald-Trib and recalled that when Wolfe turned in a story and his editor was somewhat skeptical of the factual basis of some of things in the story and challenged Wolfe as to their truth reply was that he gotten the essence of what had happened. This reporter said that in his mind, "new journalism" meant you made up your own facts.
By the way, if anyone thinks the celebrities aren't different from the rest of us, it's worthwhile noting that Wolfe traveled to Baltimore for treatment of his depression. Who knew there weren't any competent psychiatrists in NYC.
5
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Mr Wolfe once, on October 7th, 1987 at approximately 10:38am I believe. We were both attending the grand opening of an Aeroflot counter at the municipal airport in Alamagordo, New Mexico —he of course signing autographs of his book (appropriately "A Man In Full") whilst I gandered at his sartorial splendor, a full-piece flight suit bespokely cut of high-quality, dense white heavy linen with white canvas bolsters at shoulder, knee and elbow, and lined with the purest white alpaca wool imported at his request from the Peruvian highlands. This ensemble was grounded by pure white Italian paratrooper boots and capped by a fine white leather flight cap and black googles to set the complete outfit off.
While he signed we spoke in a somewhat ironic and self-amused manner about the subjects we were both interested in, and had a highly entertaining and mutually satisfying encounter. I found to my surprise that he was a human man, full of thoughts and words that he could express in a method other than writing, and so —from this chance meeting between this famous man and myself— I was able to relate my experience to you, and hopefully improve my social standing.
I will always remember your fine leather flight cap, Mr Wolfe.
10
The Acid Test book shaped my life and made me a happy person, even in the jungles of Vietnam. I owe Tom Wolfe my life and happiness. RIP my friend.
16
I was born in 1963, when his New York career was just beginning. As a child of the 60s, shaped by Vietnam, race riots, women’s liberation and ecological devastation, he was the only voice of our generation. Like the beam of a scale, he balanced English, well-written, and old-school outfits, with all of the new. He was the archangel of neo, complete in a marshmallow-white suit.
I was always conflicted when reading one of his novels. Do I rip through it voraciously, laughing out loud at times — or not? I desperately wanted to savor them, slowly, but I knew if I ignored the 3 a.m. time on my bedside-table clock and finished, I might have to wait years for the next one.
This former journalist is sad to close her chapter on waiting for new Tom Wolf books.
Heartbroken.
But grateful.
16
Great writer!!! So enjoyed "The Right Stuff". He will definitely be missed. RIP Tom Wolfe
4
Now he can roll over in his grave- The way Hollywood butchered, "Bonfire of the Vanities." An epic piece of work. Wolfe wrote with rhythmic cadence - a beatnik prose. You either liked it or you didn't. I LOVED IT!
4
I don't think my town knew what to make of its native son. I will certainly miss him.
Now that Richmond is finally hip enough for Tom Wolfe, he leaves us. But we have his work.
5
Quintessential and loved!
4
Farewell to an elegant captivating individualist. When I explained to him that he had ruined my sex life for weeks when A Man in Full arrived — my wife was consumed with it every night in bed — his response was immediate, blue eyes twinkling: “I tip my hat to your wife!” His presence gently filled the room, and will be missed.
4
What a talented writer and chronicler of his time. He was also a one of a kind personality, and I loved his white suits. Rest In Peace, Tom Wolfe.
9
The Bonfire of the Vanities continues to ring true as the boomers seek to extend the 1980s ad infinitum.
20
It is hysterically funny that Norman Mailer, John Updike and John Irving would be so critical of Tom Wolfe. Mailer, Updike and to a lesser extent Irving are all magnificent and important American writers. So what they had to say about Wolfe serves only as a reminder of their failings as human beings subject to petty jealousies, fears of inferiority, and the ugliness of competition.
Tom Wolfe was an important American writer, especially for his contributions to the New Journalism, and his "contrarian" observations about the Black Panthers and Modern Art and will be remembered as such. American literature is even better with him in the canon.
23
There will never be another quite like him; it’s too much work.
9
Tom Wolfe read a passage from Bonfire of the Vanities, which still hadn’t been published yet, at my graduation ceremony from college (1984 Long Island University). I remember the silence of the crowd after he finished. He had shared vision of the future that sent terror through all present. And among present were Kurt Vonnegut and former Mayor Lindsay. My life was changed from that point on.
24
On the Quai de Bourbon in the mid-60s where I used to stay with an American couple in what I call the other Paris, there was a small, but rich library in their dressing-room, and this is where I discovered not only 'Under The Hill' by Beardsley, but Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Mailer and Wolfe, and a book which made an impact at the time with the word candy in the title.
It is now revealed that it was Wolfe's “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,” and it was quite a different read compared to "Eugenie Grandet" by Balzac. When my host who must have been at least fifty asked with a smile what I thought of the heroine of Wolfe's novel, I flushed pink.
Tom Wolfe sounds a bit like The Right Stuff, and joining other admirers of his in saying fare forward.
6
"The earlier version also misstated the title of a novel he published in 2004. It is 'I Am Charlotte Simmons,' not 'I Am Charlotte Curtis.'”
A correction, ironically, worthy of Wolfe's oeuvre. Bravo!
5
I read him, and really liked him! He taught me, in “ bonfires,”how easy it was to live useless lives while making lots of money and thinking it so important what one was doing. He’ll be missed.
16
"how easy is was to live useless lives while making lots of money." We now have a bonfire of the vanities in the White House. Thanks for your genius, Mr. Wolfe.
5
Isn’t that the honest truth!
1
I remember devouring collections of Tom Wolfe's essays. A master has passed.
6
I idolized his journalism. No reporting was more provocative, relevant, inspiring, or lifelike.
7
Like so many readers and writers of my generation, I have Tom Wolfe to thank for showing me you could break the rules if you produced something better. He opened a door we had no idea was there, and in doing so encouraged countless others to find and open their own. The man will be missed, but his work will make him remembered forever.
11
...And by now they've finished the elaborate gadroon for Tom's cup in the modern writer's pantheon.
Eternal thanks for joggling awake a dozy freshman back in English 101, via 'The Pump House Gang'.
3
Of everything Wolfe wrote, the thing that stands out, for me, is the chapter titled Styrofoam Peanuts in Bonfire of the Vanities. I was staggered when I first read it, and even still when I revisit it.
RIP.
5
I remember being in Tiffany's in the early seventies and glancing across the room at a figure with his back to me dressed totally in white (including a white Fedora) and knowing immediately it was Tom Wolfe, not just because of the way he was dressed, but because of his stance. Arms outstretched across the counter, head tilted in insouciance. Unforgettable.
7
I had the privilege of escorting him to Lee Chapel when he came to speak at our alma mater. Of course, I wore a pinstripe suit, a well-starched shirt and a purple silk tie. He appreciated the nod to the world's greatest dandy. He was incredibly charming, a great raconteur and very kind. Although he took his craft very seriously, creating labels for important moments in time and indeed perfectly capturing an entire decade of decadence with Bonfire of the Vanities, he never took himself too seriously, even sending himself up with the neo-pretentious label. Not a pugilist but a Southern Gentleman at heart, he was a wonderful man and a great writer and the world was a better place because of his insight and grace.
18
When My wife an I walked home with Tom Wolfe in the late 80’s after a talk he gave at the University Club on 54th and Fifth, he was polite as gracious, as described, but not tall. Indeed he was decidedly short. Perhaps he subsequently grew in stature.
2
I enjoyed all of Mr. Wolff's books. It is very rare that a talent that he had comes around.
I would like then to redo the movie "Bonfire of the Vanities."
6
Yes, with the right casting this time.
3
At the age of 13, I read “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby.” It turned my mind inside out without any drugs, and I wanted to learn how to write just like him.
The truth is that there is (was) only one Tom Wolfe. Whether or not I was interested in the subject or agreed with his opinions, the sheer brilliance of his style made the essay or book worth reading (though I did feel he lost a bit off the fastball at the end).
When I get home tonight, I think I’ll pick up my 50 cent paperback of “Kandy-Kolored...” that’s been with me all these years and re-read a piece or two.
RIP.
38
The caption of the Bill Cunningham photo says that it was taken in the Bronx but it looks like 57th & 5th in Manhattan (prime Bill Cunningham territory). Bergdorf Goodman and 9 W 57th street are in the background.
4
Whoops - I'm sorry - one cannot dislike or criticize the late Tom Wolfe...
It must be the white suits. Heaven forbid he was always overrated.
"Pyrotechnic"...ok then...
3
Have you read "A man in Full"? Brilliant overtones of Cheever and Updike and hugely comic on every page. Genius stuff. One of my all time favorites.
5
Nobody looked more squarely at the gaudy pretensions of America's post-Eisenhower life and then twisted those perceptions into a gleeful gotcha ballad the likes of which makes his only peers - Evelyn Waugh, Ronald Firbank, H.L Mencken, S.J. Perelman and Peter de Vreis - sound vanilla. At heart, Tom was an old-fashioned guy - private, gentlemanly, committed to no nonsense and thoroughly traditional values. A true conservative. Was he working on something about the Age of Trump before he died? I hope so.
9
Would that he had penned his own outrageous obituary!
8
'Radical Chic & Mau Mauing the Flak catchers'.....a great takedown of the beginnings of the Liberal-Leftist culture as it began embedding itself in society.
4
One of the best novels ever written, I Am Charlotte Simmons. Timeless in its insight into how athletics and alumnae collude in generational corruption of campus societies of the Big Ten-esque Universities.
Also. Bonfire. Back to Blood. Nobody coined a culture like Tom Wolfe.
7
He let us know that the emperor had no clothes and that the clothes he didn't have were exquisite in the eyes of the non-beholder.
9
I have read nearly all the postings on this board and I have found something as unique as Wolfe himself: unanimity among the commentariat of the Times on a topic other than Donald Trump.
6
The first book I read of Tom Wolfe was "A man in full" and I was blown away by the language, the wit, the drama, the insight, the moralism, the satire, the richness of it all. It was art, surely, but also entertaining and exciting. His women's portrait in "I am Charlotte Simmons" is all of the above plus a haunting tale about the pervasiveness of peer pressure. His last novel "Back to blood" is an inspiring tale about integrity in multi-ethnic Miami, and suspenseful until the last word.
I am thankful for Tom Wolfe's work but also depressed that there won't be any new novels by this greatest of American writers. We need you, Tom.
8
RIP Tom Wolfe. For this reader you provided much of the narration and many of the best insights over what was an atrocious yet frequently amazing late 20th century ride. A personal favourite, your bang on nailing of the high society pumped yet impossibly skinny (at the time strictly female) 'Social x-ray' - a pitiful creature that, unfortunately, to this very day abounds.
10
The Bonfire of the Vanities was the greatest novel of the 20th Century. Don't let anyone say otherwise. It was honest, cruel, and highly necessary social criticism, all wrapped in the most brilliant prose an American writer has ever put down on paper. Wolfe had his absurdly dandy and annoyingly elitist affectations, and I will never forgive him for his truly awful essay "In the Land of the Rococo Marxists" that was published in Harper's in 2000, but, really, he was a fine man and the best writer of his era.
9
I was one of the targets of his vicious pen at the Leonard Bernstein party (in Radical Chic) as a very young lawyer advocating for a modicum of civil liberties for my Black Panther clients (who were all acquitted). I have long been one of his critics although we buried the hatchet about 20 years ago. People fail to see how Wolfe, a product of a southern all white boys school, stoked racial fears. Radical Chic and Bonfire were both in their essence odes to the fear of people of color. The Bronx courthouse in Bonfire surrounded by latinos and blacks and the gumption of the Bernsteins trying to raise concern that Black Panthers receive a fair trial through the hysteria of the moment were his foils. Leonard Bernstein suffered FBI harassment and the putdown of liberals socializing with Panthers caused an immediate backlash that was further fueled by an editorial in the Times condemning the Panthers and the Bernsteins for “undermining” the serious efforts of those working for civil rights.
12
I loved his novels and, coming from Updike country, I am surprised that his are the only novels which I own in hard cover. Who can forget "social x-rays" and "golden crumbs" from 1980s New York and Wall Street. Man in Full featured the observation that "you can tell when you've entered a new town because the franchises repeat." Charlotte Simmons featured a badly disguised Duke University and presaged the lacrosse team scandal which the NYT was only too happy to exploit.
4
Of course all those charges against the Duke lacrosse team were completely made up.
2
I saw him speak at a New York College club in 1989. His words about literature having no comparison to reality still ring true today: "You can't make a up the story [about Jim Bakker] that a man of god was taken in by a prostitute, from Babylon." RIP my hero.
4
I've always thought that parts of Acid Test were ghost written by Kesey.
2
He was such a trenchant observer of the markers of social class. Not just the elite, about some of whom his coinage of the term "social x-rays" will long outlive him. So many of his novels revolved around uncomfortable and unexpected interactions between classes - especially Bonfire of the Vanities, I am Charlotte Simmons, and A Man in Full. Maybe the bigger picture to realize from his body of work is that we're all actually bound together, no matter how much we think our class distinctions make us separate.
5
Never heard of him.
1
Yeah, Tom the Wolfe is Great! I wonder how many kids have died, or how many were mentally disabled, due to his endorsement of LSD! Honoring this person is disturbing and only confirms, to me, that the USA is spiralling down into the nihilism of Marxist-liberal, anti-cultural, utopianism.
1
To have been a journalist with his talent at the time he lived and worked must have been an amazing life. He sure wrote like it was.
8
It was not appropriate to include disparaging quotes from critics whose work he skewered.
5
Very sad he died. Great piece written by the NYT on this great author. Makes one want to revisit hos novels.
6
I haven’t had time to scan all of the comments, but it seems so far no one has mentioned Tom’s homophonic literary predecessor, Thomas Wolfe.
Two of the best writers this country has ever produced. They shared not only a name, but also a love and talent for words and, well, great writing. I’m sure others could make a better analysis or comparison of the two, but I just hope these two may now have a chance to meet, even if only metaphorically.
(Please, no angry responses from any who misread. The word I used was homophonic.)
7
As a white, thirty something in the financial industry in NYC at the time, Bonfire of the Vanities was the most frightening book I have ever read. A brilliant mind. RIP, Tom.
7
Mailer, et al.'s criticism that his fiction proceeded from journalism could equally be leveled against Dreiser, Zola, Beecher Stowe and a whole lot of other great novelists. In pointedly rejecting the meta, showoffy pyrotechnics that had become to "serious" novelists, he dared to write novels that became huge best-sellers — because people had enjoyment in reading them, which is the first task of literature.
5
Young Tom was educated at a private boys’ school in Richmond. He graduated cum laude from Washington and Lee University in 1951 with a bachelor’s degree in English ...............in other words WHITE PRIVILEDGE. How many minority writers have been lost to history? never getting the priviledges that this white writer did? The greatest american writer may very well have been black, but we never read thier words because guys like this got all the breaks
1
My offering is a stick of Beemans.
...He once sent me a letter with a caricatured portrait that could have been done by the New York Review's Levine. Yes, that good, and just because I had mentioned the name of Balso Snell.
Maybe it was because only a guy with a doctorate from Yale in American Culture would so prize Snell's creator and Wolfe's predecessor, Nathaniel West.
Inoculated at Yale, this ex-jock with saddle bags of testosterone, rode out onto our grand land of conspicuous consumption... like some white knight or Samurai.
And when certain pompous cultural icons irritated him, he just exploded.
Like Cyrano, he could nick, rip, slash or behead -- and pen poetry.
Like Bruce Lee, he could unleash a whirlwind, of slaps, kicks and punches that could lay out any giant.
I knew Kesey some. Wolfe's portrait rang true. (Kesey never knocked it.) The Mau Mau piece was delicious. And Modern Art and Architecture...Who ever deserved an ice bath more?
(I am sorry that he never addressed the natural world, which his father, the agronomist, knew better. And incidentally, the best piece I ever read about Wolfe was by Charles McGrath, in this newspaper.)
What I loved most was his eye and fearlessness.
When, THEY --our cultural guardians -- from their ivory towers threw all their sneers and kitchen sinks down at him, they left not a mark on his white suit or mug.
I hope you never rest in peace, Tom Wolfe.
It wouldn't suit you.
9
May God bless all those who skewer the pretentious wherever and whenever they rear their silly, sometimes dangerous heads. "He (Charlie Croker) loved the way his mighty chest rose beneath his khaki shirt and imagined that everyone in the hunting party noticed how powerfully built he was." A bare chested Putin comes to mind. Mr. Wolfe is leaving the party too early. There are still so many fools that need knocking from their proverbial high horses.
6
We crossed paths one morning on the upper east side soon after ‘The Right Stuff’ was published. I recognized him instantly in his signature white suit and said ‘love your latest Mr Wolf’ and he smiled and said thank you.
4
EKAAT was my bible for a time. As a youth in the NY burbs too young for the actual events, it sent me hitchhiking to California looking for my current fantasy. I found dope and dispair then the realization that those I sought had moved to the woods in Tennessee. There I went.
Thank you Tom for the inspiration.
2
I will not forget a lunch with Tom in the late 1990's. We all were talking about what we would or would not want to be remembered for. Tom lit up the table when he said his worst nightmare would be to have "invented Al Sharpton" on his tombstone. We will miss you Tom.
5
I haven't read much Tom Wolfe, so it comes as a surprise he had "a tin ear", "no eye" (architecture, something that also may apply to architecture as just engineering), and was a "racist, lying dog", this latter from a Black minister? His appearance was something of a gadfly on the literary scene, and, i think, that was the point--he was extremely literary, and like Dickens a good reporter with a "moral compass". Founding New Journalism--did you know that Dickens also invented the paperback.
So, some reporting here. Leonard Bernstein supported the Black Panthers. He may have noticed that there was extreme racism in America at the time. They had guns; one day at 2:00 in the morning in Oakland the police burst in on them and shot them point blank while they were in bed. Lynchings have been banned, but one wonders if the intent of the 2nd Amendment freaks (stand your ground) is to replay the intimidation towards blacks of lynchings with the new guns-everywhere laws, including allowing MR-15s designed to kill lots of people all at once.
On breaking the sound barrier, they kept Chuck Yeager's dangerous feat as a cold war secret. One senses with Ms Haspel, that she may have some of these very dangerous feats in her resume, other than the torture.
On the pursuit of "vanity" in modern American culture (which might change this November) one would note vanity, or apathy, is not the problem in Israel or S. Korea. They face annihilation every day, and they have conscription.
6
A man who routinely wore light colored three piece suits, homburg hats and spats on his shoes... the world has grown darker with his passing.
1
Heh-heggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Hack, hack, hack, hack, hack, hack
Haw, haw, haw, haw, haw, haw, haw
Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh
Thank you, Tom Wolfe, for bringing the sounds of laughing New Yorkers into service of satire.
1
The meteor shower that regularly lit the sky is over.
Report on the heavenly abode to come!
Good on ya Tom.
4
The humiliation of packing peanuts stuck to Sherman’s expensive suit still cracks me up 30 years later.
6
Tom Wolfe was a brilliant writer. He had a "Great Man" approach to history, ranging from Junior Johnson to Ken Kesey and beyond, celebrating the rugged iconoclast. This was not without its problems, particularly as he tilted increasingly to the Right. But I read "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" in 1970, when I was 13, and that was the end of Boy Scouts and church camp for me. I'm still getting over it.
21
I think that, far from being a misanthrope, Wolfe loved human beings. He loved them so much he portrayed them as theyt are, in all their gritty glory. I did an independent readings in grad school just on Wolfe alone. It was a pleasure. That was more than 30 years ago; will have to return to re-read him, and the books since 1987.
7
Excellent. But I prefer "fondness"...
1
Millions to come will be able to read and enjoy what he wrote and will be better for it. RIP.
9
Is it weird that one of the best days of my life was spent home in bed with a cold, reading Bonfire of the Vanities for ten hours straight? Nope.
32
I had the honor of assisting in a media event and gallery show of Mr. Wolfe's drawings in support of the introduction of his book "In Our Time" in 1980. He was hugely inspirational to me as a young writer at the time. Others have described his manner as courtly, and indeed it was. A perfect gentleman, and very generous with his time. I will never forget his spectacular attire: powder blue bespoke suit, high collared white shirt, light yellow silk tie and pocket square, custom knit matching powder blue socks with yellow thunderbolts, and of course, white oxfords.
12
Whenever I am in Charelston, WV, I go to the Southside Bridge Chuck Yeager once flew under. It's a flat bridge over the Kanawha River, with ornate steel over arching. The illusion to anyone standing on the roadway is cast by the sun. The flatness of the bridge seen directly, gets me in the knees every time. I go there because of the Right Stuff.
16
I remember reading “The Painted word” in my second year at art school. I was amazed at Wolfe’s ability to perfectly caricaturize the contemporary artist in all his clichés and stereotypes, without reducing it to cliché and stereotypical. In doing so, he sort of rose above it all and I found myself trusting his vision of the art world more than my own. His caricature in many ways holds even truer today.
It’s sad when giants like Kurt Vonnegut and Tom Wolfe die. We don’t realize the treasure we’ve lost immediately. It takes quiet, silent time. Then, just when we need a “Slaughterhouse Five” or “Electric Kool-Aid Test”, that is when the loss is felt. Even sadder, no one is coming along to fill these shoes.
15
As a young actor in NY in the early 80's, I had the good fortune to be in a successful new musical. Early in that success, Mr Wolfe was politely standing in the lobby after seeing the show - dressed as described, of course. The actors are often the last to leave. He had waited. Lovely, complimentary, and kind. Honored to meet him and RIP to a great human and great writer.
15
While Tom Wolfe may have been guilty of overreach when it came to his breath of topics, anyone who wonders if the man could write should read the first five pages of The Right Stuff. A sartorial showman and a writer who could capture American highs and lows.
7
I thought he captured the sociological truth of many of the sub cultures that dominate our society.
5
Growing up in 1970(s)-1980(s) New York, Bonfire of the Vanities was a life-altering read. My favorite book to this day.
7
I once heard Tom Wolfe give a talk about his writing. Given his conservative style and his putdowns of “radical chic” and modern art, I was afraid he might be snarky or smug. He was the opposite. He just overflowed with warmth and enthusiasm about the writing process. He talked about getting the inspiration for his books – how a conversation at NASA about “that Chuck Yeager stuff” gave him the idea how to organize The Right Stuff – how an experience with airport security became a scene in A Man In Full. He just seemed like a fabulous person, wickedly smart and full of life.
And for all his satiric genius, his books have a lot of sympathy as well (I’m thinking of John Glenn’s wife in The Right Stuff, and an unhappy young woman on Ken Kesey’s bus.)
Not only did I love his books, I loved him.
35
He will be missed!
4
What a delight to read about a truly important contributer to our culture. What a solace to read among the bewildering "stuff" of the political world in all spheres of our globe - the hybris, the tragedies, the crimes the NYTimes so diligently writes about day-in-day-out. Thank you for this homage to a courageous writer and pin-point observer of the world we live in.
3
I might be missing something, but if he was born in March 1931, doesn't that make him 87?
1
Loved The Painted Word! It was his emperor-has-no-clothes!
4
Finally, the end of someone who truly despised mankind...
4
He was a wonderful writer and always had great fun reading his work. Oh, also loved his white suits. Farewell Mr Wolfe.
7
Hed soulda been:
“Tom Wolfe Can’t Go Home Again Neither”
He’d have loved it.
Loved Electric Acid through The Right Stuff, the former about those wonderful surreal artists about 20-40 years older than me and the culture they created, and The ... Stuff, for giving me the anti-cultured zing of the warriors we sent to space.
And the crime is we NEVER sent an artist using any medium to the moon .
The greatest problem I had with Wolfe was with a university instructor, who was convinced that Wolfe wrote not as the observer he was, but was an actual active participant - I was her Teaching Assistant and editor of a good basic university undergrad paper and she was bust confusing Wolfe’s New Journalism with Hunter Thompson’s much closer involvement with his subjects.
I’m pretty sure Wolfe never dropped Acid with Kesey and the Pranksters, but I’m positive Thompson covered the cop conference with a half dozen mind blowers in his system.
I had to convince MY staff not to cover the weird by turning pro until after they filed their copy.
Though my Zen-spirited Irish drunk modern lit prof told me a story he got from Zen-master Kesey: Wolfe dropped by some time after Acid Test was published, and was helping Kesey move a moose head he’d just painted Electric blue.
Wolfe, dresses in full Perfect Button Hole bespoke suit nearly dropped his half of the head after staining a sleeve with fresh paint.
The Zen master replied “if you hang around something long enough, some of it’s gonna rub off,”
6
In the group photo, Jimmy Breslin comes before Peter Maas.
Freshman English '74 - '75 at Saint Bonaventure, I read Electric Kool Aid Acid test. That opened me up to read and love Richard Brautigan, Carlos Castaneda, Hunter S. Thompson et al ..... well worn copies that I still own.
7
Freshman English '71-'72 at William & Mary...ditto.
3
"Hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia, hernia ...."
I shall never forget the riveting moment of exhilaration at the onomatopoetic sounds of slot-machines in those first words of Tom Wolfe I ever read -- from Las Vegas on My Mind ("the Versailles of America")!
What a mind-blowing trip to have lived the joyful absurdity of existence in late 20th C America. And what a glorious gift to find it again in the satiric opulence of his writing.
10
1968, exiled far away on St. Croix, USVI, my junior year of high school, I read "The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test". And then everything else, ever since. Tom Wolfe, the voice of my youth, and age, thank you!
6
Reading his books is like an out of body experience.
9
"The Painted Word" was an "You're out of your mind" experience for me.
As you sit down to read Tom Wolfe, prepare for a high-speed launch. He will say anything and prefers not to say it inany way you've ever read it before.
I do not claim that he is as easy to read as Hemingway or Mailer. They operate in the normal shift pattern of morotized vehicles, but Wofle's transmission was yanked out of a UFO, so be prepared.
The public DESERVES the independent man who will say whatever he thinks needs to be said, even if he is received like Wolfe's autopst of that soiree' at Leonard Bernstein's place for have gone to the trouble.
Yes, we will miss Wolfe. We need seers who spot the huge changes, even if their names are Kanye, Limbaugh or Ron or Rand Paul.
2
Picking up 'The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test' when I was about fifteen years old, it became very clear very fast that, after reading scores of only dry history tomes, war epics and arcane sports car reviews, I was about to embark upon a journey of no return. Then came "Kandy-Kolored..' and soon the bubble would burst with the discoveries of Thompson and Talese. What they all had in common was, of course, the inclusion of themselves in the reporting of the story. Their story would start as a sub set of the larger one, and more often than not, overcome it. When Tom Wolfe wrote as a reporter, his journalism read as fiction. When he wrote later on as a novelist, he read like journalism. Just a fabulous talent that nailed the zeitgeist of his time, and presciently, of ours.
God speed, not that he believed in one.
5
I remember about five or six years ago, we had a hellish winter in the city - with daily 10 degree lows and highs around 19. I was sitting in a No. 1 train at 42nd Street waiting for the trip uptown at evening rush-hour. The doors were open and we were all getting impatient for the train to get a move-on. Suddenly, this odd figure popped his head in. His hair was wild & unkempt - a little like Richard Harris - and he was wearing a heavy white shearling coat with white shearling pants, a white shearling hat and white boots. He had a ridiculous grin on this face. He knew he cut an odd figure. I looked at him and thought to myself, what the hell? He pulled out of the cab and the doors closed. I hadn't seen Tom Wolfe in the city in many years, so he now would have been much older. It didn't occur to me that it could have been Tom Wolfe until much later, but I think it was him - wearing a special winter version of his classic white suit.
RIP Tom Wolfe. We owe him for his pure joy in the exercise of talent, and his celebration of the American spirit.
8
I had a similar experience with Norman Mailer on the Martha's Vineyard ferry in the 1980s. Had a lovely little conversation with him - only he was dressed in a demim workshirt, jeans and sandals. I was a reader, and didn''t know it was Mr. Mailer! Not until I saw him on a TV talk show a few days later. My husband and I were considering moving to the Vineyard - Mailer told me not to, the commute to Boston would be a killer if I didn't have a job on the island (he always warned me against island rates in the summer). In the end, I had to admire him from a distance here on the prairie.
3
A scene in A Beatiful Mind set in the faculty lounge offered a memorable and emotional ritual that is not easily forgettable. John Nash, a non-Ph.D. mathematician who graduated and taught at Princeton, won the Noble Prize in economics (1994) for his mathematical contributions. Learning of his accomplishment, the dons of the academy in the faculty lounge came to Nash's table and each placed their pen on the table in respect and honour of his beautiful mind. Nash was of Tom Wolfe's generation. Wolfe and his "new journalism" vanguard, including my favorite, Hunter S. Thompson, changed the way that journalism was read and understood - as factual chronologies of variable personal profiles that were not ruly understood without the craft of exposition flavored by the writer's sense of creative fiction. We lost a great author, His wordsmith arts and craft will outlive many writers of his generation and generations to come.
4
Our English textbook was The New Journalism and it was. A way to say what when said said what was a way. I learned and admired the man who wrote the way to understand what is clear thought in a confused world is to practice a confused thought in a clear world. The word expressed became world defined. Thank You Tom.
1
I can only support the comments already written. I loved his books when I read some of them in the 1970's.
2
I lost interest in Tom Wolfe after The Painted Word.
Was he pretending not to understand serious advanced art? Or did he really not understand it?
If the former, he was in bad faith, using his gifts to reassure people who didn’t understand it that it was okay not to, in fact okay to heap contempt on it, if to their loss. If the latter, he was an intelligent middlebrow with a gift for sneering, not an combination that produces results we can admire. no matter how amusing the writing.
Having just caught up on his defense of his fiction, comparing himself to Dickens, et al., he seemed to have taken the side of Lukacs in his debate with Brecht. He didn’t understand that if Brecht didn’t win the debate, Lukacs as a practical matter had long since already lost it.
We should recall that Susan Sontag dismissed much of then-current fiction for being no better than journalism or news. It may be writing, but it ain’t literature.
I remember reading Dwight Macdonald's attack on Wolfe's journalism in the New York Review of Books, in which he characterized Wolfe's work as para-journalism. It was evident from the terms with which Macdonald framed his criticism that his imprecations were in vain, that the world had changed and that the old days were gone forever. Some people seem to think that's okay.
4
I’ve worked (still do) within the contemporary art world since the 80s, and I’m afraid that Tom Wolfe was right.
4
That's the truth, Peter -- and thank you for telling it.
I dearly loved Wolfe's imagination and use of language but abhored his philistinism — first in his blind critiques of modern art and architecture ('The Painted Word' and 'From Bauhaus to Our House'), and then when, in so many words, he called Maya Lin's plan for the Viet Nam memorial an insult to the war dead and vociferously campaigned against it to the bitter end. What sweet justice that he lived to see memorial become the most affecting (and celebrated) in our nation's capital.
5
A great chronicler of our time has passed from our world. Rest in peace Tom Wolfe.
5
Reading Tom Wolfe was like listening to Beethoven.
Stylistically, I appreciate him at the same level as Henry James, meaning in the topmost echelon of English-language authors.
Condolences to everyone lucky enough to know him in person. Let's give him a suitable send-off!
3
This obit sets a standard by which all should be assessed.
I loved reading Tom Wolfe’s writing; fiction and nonfiction, books, essays, articles.
Mr Wolfe would, I believe, applaud the writing skill and thoroughness of this piece.
My condolences to his family, loved ones, friends, and fans.
7
It takes a writer of incomparable talent to reside comfortably in the head of a test pilot and, just as comfortably, in the head of an acid dropping hippie.
7
There is so much to say about the man and his writing - the inventiveness, the satire, the takedowns, and all of it has been said.
I will focus on this. He was funny.
My god was his writing funny - and so smart at the same time.
That combination is probably why so many people hated him - even as they kept on reading anyway.
5
Is it too much to hope that somewhere there's an unfinished Wolfe manuscript about post-2016 upside-down America, with the deserved title "The Ash Heap of Trump?" We will all miss Wolfe's unique skill to outrage and delight, all in the same exquisitely constructed sentence.
4
He was a writer of talent, perhaps even genius. But like a lot of very smart people, he had a theory of the way things were, which caused him to cherry pick whatever he experienced, and ignore what didn't fit his theory. Like DH Lawrence, he was an anti-intellectual intellectual, a person who romanticized the uneducated, but didn't really understand how out of touch he was with them. His takedown on Leonard Bernstein's "radical chic" became the basis for modern Trump style anti-intellectualism, ignoring the fact that the Panthers themselves we're grateful for his support, and didn't feel talked down to at all. His rant against the Vietnam war memorial turned out to be completely misguided, as thousands of veterans repeatedly testified how moving they thought it was. And his takedown of modern Art ignores the fact that pretty much everyone, regardless of education level, feels comfortable with abstract art today. A very gifted writer, but he focused all of his virtuosity on innuendo and sneer
6
My favorite: From Bauhaus to Our House. I remember my architecture teacher was NOT pleased to see I was reading it. My feeling: too bad for you!
5
I met Tom Wolfe just once, a week or so after having attended a lecture he gave at Harvard. I think the encounter took place in Easter week in 1967, but it could have been later. I can't recall the lecture itself beyond the fact that it took place in a now no longer existent theatre for science lectures. I believe the building was called Burr Hall. It may lecture theater was designed to enable everyone in attendance to overlook the demonstration table and see the experiment the science lecturer was performing. However, by the time Wolfe spoke, Burr Hall had become obsolete for science lectures and therefore was available for visiting lectures likely to attract hundreds to the audience, as had done on that occasion. As I said, I met Wolfe the week following. He was wearing an off-white linen suit and strolling north up 5th Ave at about E. 70th St. My friends and I, all of whom had been at the lecture, were strolling south, having just been to the Met. One of us, I think it was a classmate named Paul, stopped Wolfe to say that we had been at the lecture and had greatly enjoyed it. His response, as I remember it: "You know there were bunsen burners on the table in front of me as I spoke. I suppose if the lecture didn't go well, you could gas yourself." That was it. He continued his northward amble and we continued walking south.
5
Remarkably spot on books by an observer who could translate to the page what he saw and make the reader feel as though they were there. "The Right Stuff" -- he wrote about it and he had it when it came to writing. And he was totally correct about his clothing -- he wanted to standout and he did physically and intellectually. Loved all of his books.
2
All these famous type people who go to major, top flight NYC hospitals and die. One thinks of names through the decades who are on the road to recovery when... Guess the old saying is right: stay out of court and out of the hospital.
I had the honor of meeting and conversing with Tom Wolfe once. It was at a gym where he was watching his son play squash. A week before, I happened to catch Wolfe speaking at the 92nd Street Y about the 40-year publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey. Of course Wolfe knew a lot about Kesey. Basically, I parroted back to him his thesis in his Kesey speech: that Kesey and his disciples--the Pranksters--were beginning what Wolfe considered a fledgling religion. LSD was their "host." Wolfe was certainly flattered that I recalled his speech in detail. It didn't hurt that I'd read The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test a couple of times, and was able to speak about that book too. He was not standoffish in the least. It was a very pleasant conversation, and sweet memory for me.
3
This man changed the world of journalism, both with his magazine articles (I thank the Gods I still have my copy of "Smiling Through The Apocalypse) and his novels. I will miss him. He was the high watermark for me in the world of writing. An incalculable influence.
3
What a ingenious and authentic literary voice of our time, who is at the same a pleasure to read. That some of his contemporaries and targets of his writings felt piqued only adds to his value.
2
"I am Charlotte Simmons" came out when I was a female freshman at a liberal arts college. I don't care what the critics said--to me, it was absolutely on point.
Rest in peace, Tom Wolfe, thank you for sharing your insight, humor, and wit with us.
4
He was a, um...challenging.
(also the picture you're attributing to the Bronx in 1987 is clearly in Manhattan.)
2
I had a lifelong crush on Tom Wolfe's writing. I followed him through NY Mag, Harpers, Esquire and Rolling Stone and devoured his novels as well. He was the ultimate scribe of a time that was happening at a pace where we needed a guide to follow. That was Tom Wolfe.
His words in combination had the effect of a great painting. Made you feel and 'get it' with a touch of wry or amazement. He reported and he created.
My best to his family. RIP Tom Wolfe from one proud Virginian to another.
5
A generally well-considered obituary only slightly marred by the following:
"...a worthy heir of his fictional idols Balzac, Zola, Dickens and Dreiser..."
I realize some think we live in a post-factual age, but I hope we can all agree that the four authors mentioned are all very much non-fictional.
4
Novelist, Tom Wolfe, was always razor-sharp with satire and he wasn't afraid of making statements that might offend others. I disagree with the article in the _New York Times_ by Deirdre Carmody and William Grimes that states, "Many critics found [Wolfe's 2004 book] ''I Am Charlotte Simmons' (2004), about a naïve freshman’s disillusioning experiences at a liberal arts college fueled by sex and alcohol, unconvincing and out of touch" (Carmody and Grimes). To me, it was anything but "unconvincing and out of touch" because it could have been straight from my undergraduate years and the story will haunt me forever. Tom Wolfe was a brilliant author who will not be forgotten, especially by me.
100
Right on re "I Am Charlotte Simmons." For me that was his strongest novel with the most convincingly drawn characters. It was audacious for a 70 something urbane male to get into the head of a striving young woman from the country - and perhaps it was that audaciousness that overshadowed the book itself in the eyes of some critics.
24
I couldn't agree more. I think said critics were uncomfortable with the reality presented in I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS. My daughter read it right before she entered the University of Michigan in 2005 and found that Wolf's take was depressingly accurate.
11
I recall a quote from Ken Kesey saying the craziest part of the Electric Kool Aid Acid Test was Wolfe in his always freshly cleaned silk suits on the bus with a bunch of hippies.
11
Wolfe was the best at the right time. In college, I was blown away and inspired by the articles in his 1973 book, "The New Journalism." Truman Capote and Hunter S. Thompson were among the others, but Wolfe was not only a sharp journalist but a ground-breaking literary and social critic. His article "Radical Chic" describing the pretentious party at Leonard Bernstein's apartment in New York is precious.
8
He put me on the bus with Kesey, made me "spam in a can" during the nascent Mercury program, and got me lost with Sherman McCoy. Thank you! Thank you!
But please don't convince them to adopt your sartorial splendor at the pearly gates. None of use will meet the dress code! RIP.
10
Ignore Mailer. You’re right on.
5
Speaking of pretentiousness: I don't mean to be hyper-critical or to ignore the point of the obituary, and I might be alone in this feeling, but I wouldn't mind if an edict was passed either reducing usage of "bespoke" to no more than once per every third rainy Thursday or striking it from usage altogether.
10
Mr. Wolfe would have been the first (or the second if you count Bill Safire) to point out that "normalcy" is not a word (unless you are Warren G. Harding).
5
Hear, hear! And thankfully, 'normality' is still in use.
2
The Bonfire of the Vanities is one of the few novels I have read that made me laugh uncontrollably. Anyone recall the dinner parties given by "the social xrays." And dear Nunnally Voyd!
8
I read Bonfire of the Vanities in New Delhi, about 28 years ago.
Overall, I appreciated the callout of the pretense, superficiality in modern society. But I thought the novel was verbose. And was there an opportunity lost to connect to the deeper meaning that could exist in all life, after having come this far? (It seemed Tom only sketched and sketched, and kept it at that.)
But all said and done, seems like a life well lived, and what are the chances he is not dressed up (easy choice?) for the final appearance?
3
From Wikipedia: "Radical Chic" was a biting account of a party given by composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein to raise money for the Black Panther Party. "Mau-Mauing The Flak Catchers" was about the practice by some African Americans of using racial intimidation ("mau-mauing") to extract funds from government welfare bureaucrats ("flak catchers"). Wolfe's phrase, "radical chic", soon became a popular derogatory term for critics to apply to upper-class leftism. Somethings never change, snowflakes!
1
Neo pretentious is just perfect.
5
Love him or hate him, our culture is better for having Tom in it to hoist petards gleefully and slay sacred cows with devastating accuracy. Rest your weary head, my son; the journey is finally over.
5
I had the pleasure of hosting Tom Wolfe during a writer's conference in Boulder, CO, in the early 1970s. We invited several friends to have dinner with him at our house, one of whom was a Ph.D. student in philosophy at the University of Colorado who had spent several years as a cab driver in New York City after graduating from Columbia. When Tom learned his background, he went into full reporter mode and spent nearly the entire time pumping him for cab driver stories, each one more wild than the one previous. It was a wonderful illustration of the method he used to gather materials for his books and magazine articles.
Unfortunately, the evening ended on a negative note. After dinner, we went to a party attended by students and counterculture types. Tom several times refused the offer of drinks, but our graduate student friend had a couple, which it turns out were spiked, experienced hallucinations, and ended up in the hospital. Tom told us that he was always cautious because many people who read "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" assumed that since he had spent so much time with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, he too regularly consumed LSD and marijuana. However, nothing could have been further from the truth, since doing so would have robbed him of the detachment and objectivity needed for his reporting.
It's sad to lose a unique but classic American type.
36
So much wonderful irony and detachment and superiority in a beautiful writing style. Alas, the ugly world of Donald Trump, Howard Stern, Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Kanye West and Sean Hannity has overtaken him. Evil is not funny anymore. But Tom cannot be blamed for that. Niceness cannot be blamed.
I had such a good laugh about "Do Panthers like little Roquefort cheese . . . "
6
Tragically, this story flew right over your head. Get ready for more and greater sorrow in the coming years, while the rest of us enjoy life more and more! :-) Oh, never mind. You're in Europe. That helps to explain it a bit.
For Kanye West read R. Kelly
1
Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson we're two literary geniuses that captured a time in America, viewed from the right and left. They captured the essence of America with pinpoint accuracy, vividness and found new was to paint pictures with words. RIP gentlemen and thank you for your contribution to American culture.
9
I don't believe he will achieve the afterlife as a journalist that H.L. Mencken has obtained, but his books were fun to read and deserve continued attention. It helps that for many of us all this will require is a trip to our attic or cellar to to find where we left them.
2
My favorite author, and the only one whose books I would wait for.
1
A good snapshot, but there's a little more: For all his flippancy in print, in person (offstage, as it were), he could be helpful and generous, with advice and connections, to younger writers trying to make their way up. A good man.
11
Saw him speak at Roger Strauss’ funeral. A colorful, eloquent man.
1
Would have loved a Tom Wolfe account of a Trump rally. The work of his that I know best, Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, is remarkable for documenting, in remarkable detail and with perfect pitch, some truly problematic developments and doing so sympathetically as well as critically. He didn’t go for the low hanging satirical or judgmental fruit but got to the heart of a very interesting phenomenon. A valuable document. An awesome achievement. RIP.
6
I wrote a feature on the New Journalism as my term assignment for a post-graduate journalism class at Penn State. Tom Wolfe featured prominently, of course. Mr. Wolfe will continue to inspire and delight for years to come.
3
There were, however, two American writers who were THE masters of baroque, acerbic, and "flamboyant" prose: H. L. Mencken and S. J. Perelman.
Both, of course, long preceded Wolfe. A. Bierce would have liked his writing.
All are nonpareil in my opinion!
7
Meanwhile back at the obit critique, Tom Wolfe is accused of using disguised journalism as a novel plot. Well, hello, Charles Dickens. What did the critics think his works (and some of Shakespeare) were?
8
Mr. Wolfe was one of the main reasons I became a journalist. I have read and reread most of his books frequently. It's hard to think of any other reporter, including Jimmy Breslin, who had as much impact on what was then called " the new journalism" than Tom.
RIP Mr. Wolfe.
3
One of the enduring stories about Tom Wolfe' career was provided by Dr William Goetzmann, Tom's friend, and oft times competitor, in the American Studies doctoral program at Yale. Teaching a summer class at UT Austin in '65 Goetzmann explained that Tom told Yalie colleagues he chose journalism and social criticism over academia because he did not want to compete will Bill (a recipient of the Parkman Prize in History and the Pulitzer Prize in '67). Both were great in their own way.
Forty years ago, I saw Tom Wolfe walking up Park Avenue dressed in his usual impeccable attire. What a vision! It was a hot summer evening, so he was wearing his perfectly tailored white suit with crisply cuffed trousers, three or four inches of shirt cuffs showing from the bottoms of his jacket sleeves. Not a wrinkle anywhere and even his stride was elegant as the mortals around him wilted in the heat. I'll remember his sartorial style just as much as his fabulous writing. He was a treasure.
9
Alas... just as it took the murder of John Lennon on December 8th of 1980 to turn me on to the Beatles (I was about to turn 15 at the time), I have found out about this amazing writer, the works of whom I shall now have to investigate. I love a good rebel!
2
Wolfe's crackpot theories about evolution dropped some of the gilt from his lily, but for a child of the '60's whose life was rearranged (and in a good way) by "Acid Test", I will forgive him for his late-in-life eccentricities.
1
Not only a great writer, but a courtly gentleman. Sadly, he was probably one of the last.
5
Like Vonnegut, he is a true American literary treasure. His books created watershed events in American writing and letters. We will miss him.
5
Always looked forward to his wonderful novels and loved the charismatic character he presented in life. Will miss him and no longer being able to look forward to another novel. Or was he possibly working on one?? (hopefully)
A couple of decades or so ago, Mr. Wolfe and I were the only men in the dressing room of a stuffy dance studio on the Upper East Side. I had wandered north to take a Pilates class, which was new to me at the time, and there was Mr. Wolfe changing into something suitable. As the code required, we nodded to each other and went about our preparations.
I was a novice, so my attention during class was focused on the instructor. But I did catch the odd glimpse of Mr. Wolfe, twenty years my senior, as he moved. And I was impressed. I wasn’t aware of this side of him, his devotion to fitness. Perhaps it grounded him, helped in to find his balance in the whirling altitudes in which he traveled.
His writing was one of the more brilliant facets of our city and will always be so.
6
The Kesey book was his best, which he never equaled. His fiction was unreadable, unlike Kesey.
I always thought he would be here. Will miss him.
5
Acid Test informed the empty reaches of my 17 year old brain like nothing else. It gave shape to what I was experiencing in the 60's...Change was afoot and Wolfe nailed it from page 1.
1
Radical Chic, Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff were all tremendously insightful.
Charlotte Simmons was years ahead of Me,too and the revelations about corruption in college sports.
Back to Blood was excellent.
What a loss!
3
This morning's weather made me think of what I might want to read during an upcoming summer break. At least now I know my author.
I loved The Bonfire of the Vanities and will be revisiting Tom Wolfe. Just wish it was June 26 already.
1
All I can say is that, as this obituary observes, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test is the definitive book of the 60's for me and marked Me. Wolfe as a writer of extraordinary talent and observation. In it, he captured the Zeitgeist of the times and all with book like Dispatches by Michael Herr, perfectly captures the wonder and insanity of both the early psychedelic movement's and Vietnam, which were so bizarrely juxtaposed on top of each other.
One of the greats has passed. All honor due.
132
I read Man in Full just before moving to Atlanta and becoming a spectator among the monied set. The book proved a helpful introduction and guide to that world, including golden pineapple coifs and boys with breasts. RIP Mr. Wolfe.
12
What has been accomplished here is something I thought would be impossible: an obituary for Tom Wolfe that would be worthy of the man, and a precis of his complex attitudes toward society at large, and those in the plutocracy badly in need of skewering.
And, in the same breath, a man who by all appearances enjoyed the life he led, and valued the friendship of those in rarified society who were the rarest of things: fine people, thoroughly grounded about themselves and their society.
Nice job!
91
"Radical Chic" stone cold nailed it.
May he rest in peace.
26
This man had a passion for the written word as few others. Agree or disagree with his observations, admire or despise his work, this man delighted in written expression, with the pure delight of a child running about, sometimes crazily, at a long sought afternoon recess. This life of ours is hard enough as it is. We all know it and feel it. We need passions. We need joys. We need escapes. We all have a valuable perspective to share, as there is only one of us. If we do not share it, the world shall never know it. Tom Wolfe found a great and abiding passion in life that sustained him, and had the courage to share his perspective. He found his voice and shared it. May we all be so fortunate, and have the audacity to do the same in our own ways and lives, with the same untrammeled delight, even wildness, of a child at play. My sincere condolences to his loved ones and family, and may he rest at peace, forever at play.
215
Well said, Jonn.
25
What a beautiful eulogy, Jonn. I am moved and inspired by your words. Inspired both to learn more about Wolfe, and to find new ways to express my passions and share my perspective in this, the second half of my life.
2
Oh, I was just saying the other day that Tom Wolfe at the height of his powers was just who we needed to chronicle the perverse way we live now. Light a bonfire in his memory, and may his Wolfean free spirit inspire young writers everywhere -- yes!!!
52
No mention of Kingdom of Speech?
interesting writer, too bad about the reactionary politics
7
I have only read "The Painted Word" and "From Bauhaus to Our House," and I greatly wish I had the opportunity to read more. I also remember something he said towards the end of the 80's, which turned out to be prescient, and I paraphrase "The 90's will be just as awful as the 80's only with more money."
A great deflater of humbug, keenly observant, and an astonishingly good writer.
Sic transit.
127
The Panther fundraiser story is great. Reminds us how little has changed. Privileged white urbanites - far removed from any real danger and completely unconnected to the amazing, pulsating, dynamic, messy, beautiful, ugly, cool, boring, loving and loathing society they live near, but not in - trying their best to seem radical. And they now-standard reply to a critic "racist... fascist...". Yawn.
18
Today, your words could just as easily apply to corporate welfare-dependent plutocrat "defenders" of free market capitalism.
3
I've read most of My Wolfe's works. They are wonderful. My favorite is “I Am Charlotte Simmons” and its appeal was the truth it uncovered about academics, basketball, and big time Universities. I speak as an academic and college basketball fan. Approximately 40 years ago I witnessed how a big time New York college funneled money through the animal research facilities to the basketball team and even created a special in house college for the players. Animal facilities did seem appropriate. “I Am Charlotte Simmons” seems to have gotten reality just right. Kudos to Mr. Wolfe.
24
I loved his writing, his searing wit and his keen observation. He wrote like an anthropologist and portraitist about the times and characters he described. I still use his term "saddle bags," which he used in A Man In Full to describe the bank collection employee whose shirt had sweat-drenched armpits. And I absolutely loved I Am Charlotte Simmons. Rest In Peace Mr. Wolfe.
11
The Boswell of our generation.
6
No words. Wolfe was one of the masters, in the same club as Twain, Capote and Steinbeck.
20
"Man in Full," his best!
5
A beacon of clarity with an acid wit. Mee-dah! RIP.
4
Tom Wolfe always could be counted on for a critical eye on whatever theme he was writing/ reporting about. So he offended limousine liberals and the art world? Somebody had to do it.
Reading this article made me realize how petty the literary world is. I would take 10 Tom Wolf’s to 1 Norman Mailer. I always felt that Mailer was self promoting, bombastic and unreadable.
20
No, he offended the Panthers.
They already looked down on the white artists types, but that Action Faction needed the cash badly.
Poor Leonard Bernstein. I don't believe he ever got over the gleeful roasting he got from Wolfe.
23
I love Lenny, but he fully deserved the roasting he got, that late-life gender-bending poser! Maybe they will finally fight it out Upstairs...
2
We will miss him. He will not miss us. The follies he so gloriously described in such novels as The Bonfire of the Vanities showed a patrician and patriotic disgust for a society that knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
42
Oh, Robin!
And so the assumption goes...
Know yourself and you will know your values.
Tom Wolfe wrote about members of the genteel society not in an obsequious manner, but with a gentle cattle prod. And that infuriated those folks. This is best captured by his view of why some folks, especially critics, despised him:
"Intellectuals aren't used to being written about. When they aren't taken seriously and become part of the human comedy, they have a tendency to squeal like weenies over an open fire."
He was a keen observer of human behaviors and social status seeking. He was the best chronicler of the post war American culture and society.
RIP.
238
I started reading him in 1964, when I was a very young newspaper writer in Philadelphia. Clay Felker’s Herald Tribune was the best designed North American newspaper ever. I think Wolfe was spot- on in his criticism of the art world —the only problem was that his alternative proposals were deeply reactionary. Not mentioned was his prescient profile of Marshall McLuhan in ‘What if he’s right?’
8
in this era of the denegration of journalism, there is always traffic when a voice is silenced. Death comes sweetly or cruel or just unawares. But life is busy and boisterous. There is solice in thinking some trace of that experience endures. As Mr. Wolfe is read by our children, we know it does. Long after the truants and despots of today are history book fodder, his words will inspire and inform.
5
Radical Chic remains as timely as ever...
13
I thought the book was titled "I am Charlotte Simmons," and it was brilliant, but not as good as "Bonfire of the Vanities" which was such a wonderfully poignant read for the law student I was at the time. His talent was a gift to us all. I plan to go back now and read all of his books that I missed.
9
Yes, and didn't he base I Am Charlotte Simmons on Duke University? I will have to reread as well.
3
Simmons is clearly about Duke--and is more true today than ever.
3
I will miss his wonderful books. I guess I will have to re-read them all!
9
Apart from his astonishing gift of words, his thinking was just as clear: he was dead right on the banality and incompetence of contemporary art (toilet exhibits anyone?) as well as architecture.
26
He had a unique way with words. RIP Mr. Wolfe.
5
My great admiration for him over decades was undercut somewhat in recent years by his (to me) odd political stance as an American Tory, evident in his recent ad hominem attack on Noam Chomsky and earlier criticism of Maya Lin's brilliant Vietnam Memorial. I suppose even first-class minds are occasionally tripped up by prejudice of one kind or another. But these are footnotes to a stunning literary oeuvre. Whatever the "critics" said about "I Am Charlotte Simmons," the scene in which Coach Roth (clearly a stand-in for Duke's Coach K) upbraids one of his star players for deciding to take a challenging philosophy course is unforgettable -- hilarious and revelatory, fiction that screams "this is the way things really are" underneath the hype and PR of ever merchandised America. Tom Wolfe could do that.
26
As an astute observer how lived among the American Left aristocracy, how would you expect him not to react to the excesses and hypocrisy he saw? The cultural elite and media are dominated by those who mercilessly attack anything outside their little world (mainly standard-issue humans scattered across the landscape who don't merit worth due to their lack of cultivation and their crude ways). Why shouldn't someone like Tom Wolfe poke back at them?
7
Kesey, born flat broke ib Kentucky was a limousine liberal? The NASA 7?
I hope he’ll be remembered dor more than one piece!
1
A man with a great talent for writing who understood America and Americans.
6
Bonfire of the Vanities - I still remember reading this book as a college student and laughing so hard and out loud. It was a bright spot in my life. I was in awe. I also remember how, for some time afterwards, years - so many obituaries of Wall Street titans would mention "his favorite book was Bonfire of the Vanities." I was introduced to The New Journalism of Tom Wolfe by a lovely journalism professor at Harvard Summer School in 1985. I was and am in awe of Tom Wolfe.
9
I loved and learned from his journalism and respected his hubristic desire to become America's Balzac in fiction. Heaven knows we need one. Ultimately he was still a journalist IMO. The characters in Bonfire of the Vanities are mostly stock, with interior lives much resembling their exteriors, except one, but the most important one: The City itself, whose vast digestive tract swallows teeming black and brown beings for the sustenance of fewer, lighter parasites and swells, the whole as pitiless and unthinking as a lava surge, and as sparkly. What a great character! What a great writer.
5
I remember the "radical chic" commentary when it happened but never knew who coined it. guess I should have paid more attention.
3
I greatly appreciate your portrait of the artist. His work like that of the Beatles so overpowers his or their personal story. He had and made and did The Right Stuff.
5
I remember when he first appeared on the scene. He rocked my world! We will hear no more from him now but we can read his body of work at any time, and so can those who come after us.
67
Rocked my world puts it perfectly. I discovered him as I arrived in college in the mid-90s, and it felt like Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test opened up a door onto American literature -- "the American story" -- as wild and free like I'd never known it could be... creative and alive and there for the reimagining, joining. I don't know that I ever felt that jolt of literary energy quite so intensely again.
2
so sorry to hear about this. mr wolfe's writing was adroit, accurate and laugh-out-loud funny. for my money, he and joan didion were the two best chroniclers of latter 20th century american culture. very different styles but both usually nailed it.
5
Who Am Charlotte Curtis? Charlotte Simmons we recognize.
4
Made it through about 30 pages of that wreck to realize what a poor, overwriter he was.
Tom Wolfe gone? How dreadful. Only Wolfe could best summarize this hideous jumble of a political landscape we now have. His penetrating wit will be sorely missed when we need it the most.
23
The novel is "I Am Charlotte Simmons."
1
His words are his legacy.
3
My first exposure to Tom Wolfe was in art school when our professor had us read The Painted Word. It was a spot on criticism of the contemporary art scene in the 1970’s. The same witty and brutal observation of society that was a theme throughout his work. He was brilliant and will be missed.
5
Definitely worth reading his story in Esquire about Junior Johnson — the moonshiner-turned-stock car racer and “Last American Hero.”
8
Tom Wolfe was one of the writers I read and studied in high school, and later at CCNY where I got my journalism degree. Reading someone like Wolfe, and then trying to write your own stories in your own way, was intimidating and depressing when I was young. But I learned from Wolfe that any good writer has to be a fine reporter and observer of people. And I learned that you had to have your own unique style. For me, Tom Wolfe was an inspiration. This is a sad day.
10
And don't forget "The Kingdom of Speech" that so brilliantly undercuts Chomsky's academic output.
4
What does it say about me if I love and admire them both? Terminally vacuous?
1
He will be missed as Hunter Thompson, and Truman Capote are now. I don't know who is filling those shoes now, but let me know when you find them. The template is there and boy do we need it!
16
A friend turned me on to "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" in 1967. It was followed by Ken Kesey's "Sometimes a Great Notion." Not too shabby.
4
The end of an era.
5
A great, great American writer and wit. His books will be read for generations to come.
3
I am Charlotte Curtis? Simmons you mean.
1
“I am Charlotte Simmons “ exposed the hypocrisy of college sports and fraternities.
3
I've always loved reading Tom Wolfe's books. I lived through the times he wrote about. Even if he was writing about the Bernstein fund raising parties, about people who were very different from me, I could still relate to them. He was smart and funny in his books and spot on in capturing the mood of people and the country. He was also an extremely spiffy man in his dress. I send sympathy to his family and happiness that Wolfe left us such great stuff to read for generations to come.
10
A literary giant. But I must say, my first thought on hearing that Tom Wolfe had died was: What is he going to wear in his casket?
6
sad....will be missed. thats all
Fortunately for future historians, Wolfe's pitch-perfect characterizations of the 60's counter culture and the 80's greed culture, both ironically often featuring the same cast of characters, will be primary sources that will transport them into either milieu with astringent clarity. RIP
14
Knew had to put a unique spin on his yarns! I was particularly amused and intrigued by the style of his writing in The Rght Stuff! A gifted story teller, from rare angles! He will be missed! R.I.P.
7
Not quite Mark Twain, but very close.
6
Twain wrote more about an entirely different era - if you are looking for a real 40s-60s Twain, I think the overlooked Jean Sheppard came a lot closer.
Those two told only slightly tall tales and were willing to go off on tangents you never thought would lead back to the original story - and their stories were about pretty average people suddenly finding themselves in strange places,
Wolfe’s characters were bigger than life to start with.
3
There are exactly three books I stayed up all night to read in one sitting in my younger years - "The Right Stuff", "Bonfire of the Vanities", and Tracy Kidder's "Soul of the New Machine".
Thank you Tom Wolfe for sharing your special gift with the rest of us.
10
I had the great good fortune to meet Mr Wolfe when he spoke at my college many moons ago. He drove up in his rental car with pithy comments about Rt 22 in New Jersey in his 3 piece off white suit. What an experience! He enchanted the audience. His books nailed our times. An author and sociologist extraordinaire. RIP!
111
Loved him,his writing and running into him on the UES.He was always so polite..one time as he walked toward me on madison ave.I said "howdy,I am your basic social Xray" to which he replied "not true.. social X-rays don't say howdy nor do they admit to being one".made my day.
14
I have read Tom Wolf's book, "From Bauhaus to our House" a few times. I appreciated his humor in seeing the absurdity of modernism and rigid rules of that architecture style. Even though I was living in a modernist home when I read it and attempting to restore it to it's original grandeur I still needed the laugh at over the top pretentiousness. Thanks, Tom I will read it again. RIP
14
Yeeeeeeeuuuuuuuck!
We used to maintain his rose garden at his house in Southampton. I remember him sitting back there with some friend, watching us, as our all-female team of gardeners mulched the rose beds. Tom and his friend were speaking about "Madonna and the mechanization of sex." Fun. Definitely one of the more entertaining conversations I have ever eves-dropped upon.
85
“Recommend” with kudos to “eves dropped”.
2
Yes. He wrote best.
4
I love his books. Maybe now we'll find out what "that thing with the cup" actually was...
5
"I Am Charlotte Simmons" (not Curtis) I only know because it stays by my bed with hopes of one day finishing it!
14
Is he "on the bus" or "off the bus" now?
21
Charlotte *Simmons!
10
How could you notention 'social x-ray'?
51
Yes—and the closely related “lemon tarts”!
2
Touchstone.
4
The foremost chronicler of the second half of the twentieth century. Electric Kool aid acid test, The Right Stuff, Bonfires of the Vanities, A Man In Full..a boomer’s roadmap. Thanks for the insight and RIP
98
RIP to a man who had the write stuff.
164
KD-
Nope not a sneaker; faux spat.
5
RIP
Electric Kool Aid Acid Test was on the reading list for my freshman year English Comp class in 1972. After reading it I was hooked on seeking out anything written by Mr. Wolfe through the late 80s.
28
Oh no!
5
“If a writer has any sense of what journalism is all about he does not get into the minds of the characters he is writing about. That is something, shall we say, Capote-esque—who thought he had discovered a new art form but, as I pointed out, all he had discovered was lying.” - Gore Vidal
I thought Vidal and Wolfe both understood that history is best revealed in a lie told truthfully.
45
A real loss, but we have his writings to carry on the memory.
9
I hope the "full obituary" is going to get around to Wolfe's being the house voice of literary Reaganism.
9
If you mean that he flinch at offending the poseurs who prettified barbarism, the abbreviated obit makes the point quite clearly.
I of course meant to write that he DIDN'T flinch. I should follow Wolfe's example of producing typed, triple-spaced pages instead of trying to compose even the simplest prose on an iPhone.
1
Composing on the iPhone: Mission impossible.
1
Tom Wolfe did what only great non-fiction writers can do: Make any topic fascinating. I vividly remember idly picking up a copy of The Right Stuff in a bookstore, doubtful that I really wanted to read about the space program, only to lose the weekend reading it with as much enjoyment as my favorite novels. Here’s to pushing the edges of that envelope, Tom. Say Hi to Yeager and the rest of the guys up there where the air is thin.
306
Chuck Yeager is still alive, though he may be "up there" at any given time.
12
While I admire the metaphor, Chuck Yeager is, in fact, still alive.
10
Yeager is still with us.
7
Tom Wolfe: American novelist extraordinaire whose life's work will never diminish. Thank you, Mr. Wolfe and rest in peace. Sincere condolences to his family.
22
I was lucky enough to meet the great Mr. Wolfe circa 1986 when he spoke at the University of Connecticut. He signed my copies of The Right Stuff and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which I still have. Probably my favorite writer ever, and someone whose thunderbolt-infused style inspires my own writing to this day. RIP.
30
His slashing attacks on the pretense of 'cultureburg' in art and architecture changed American aesthetics and, to my mind, much for the better. He will be missed.
61
Our greatest essayist. We will not see his like again.
19
I did well on the cool aid acid tests, before and while reading. I definitely drove the Deegan during Bonfires. Charlotte Simmons, yup. the followup to the masterpiece, nope. Men in Full...the Miami book....
Thanks TW. a lot. it was great fun
12
Great writer, great reporter. Got inside with junior johnson, chuck yeager, and ken Kesey, set a high bar for everyone else.
17
I was thinking recently that only Tom Wolfe could write the story of America since DJT entered politics.
202
Yes, Tom Wolfe or Hunter Thomson.
Who do we have now?
12
I was having similar thoughts several days ago. In his honor, I am going to reread "The Bonfire of the Vanities". At the time he wrote it, he couldn't have possibly known that middle class America would elect the narcissistic trust fund brat prone to a fixation of anything "ala Putin" would end up in the Oval Office holding court with his self-absorbed offspring and Mr. Hannity.
50
Please don't ruin Tom Wolfe's moment by referencing DJT.
In 1965, the army said "son, you are an adult now and it is your time to serve" and as an adult the first adult book I read was "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine- Flake Streamlined Baby".
What a year.
RIP TOM WOLFE.
45
"Non-Fiction?".........The Right Stuff is pure fiction. Investigate his "relationship" with Scott Carpenter and John Glenn and then look at the "non-fiction" way he "wrote" the book.
2
Ok, but, did you enjoy the book?
2
"master of the universe" Truly. will be missed.
34
What I meant to write in my previous comment was that Wolfe's response to describing his "get up" was perfect: Mr. Wolfe replied brightly, “Neo-pretentious." Right on, as usual!
4
RIP Tom. My first book by him was "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". Absolutely brilliant. "The Right Stuff" was also a favorite of mine. Mr. Wolfe and Mr. Thompson truly defined a generation.
8
As a young J student in the 70s, Mr Wolfe inspired and excited me in pursuit of the craft. I loved his style, his way with words that brought stories to life. Rest in style, and in peace.
10
Every one of his non-fiction books are genuine classics, funny and unafraid to debunk images of people and institutions. Like everyone else, I also devoured Bonfire of the Vanities - impossible to put it down. Frankly, the other novels he wrote in his later years aren't very good, but that shouldn't be held against him in any way because everything he wrote previously is in a class of its own.
Have a good journey Tom, and thanks for everything you left behind for the rest of us to enjoy.
134
Yes, Bonfire of the Vanities was his best. I read it three times - and still holding on to it.
6
Loved everything he did, both fiction and nonfiction. Perhaps the greatest American author of my lifetime. He will be missed.
10
So sad.
I lived in San Francisco in the 60s. "Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers" WAS the time. Took me home after I moved away.
An empty spot in my heart.
46
Loved his books - he caught the times, no matter when or where, so perfectly.
As sad as I am to know that Mr. Wolfe has moved on, it makes me glad to see this photograph of him. And that last remark is perfect Tom Wolfe!
7
I was just thinking of Tom Wolfe a few hours ago, wondering how he was doing, and realizing he was a figure you assumed would be there in the suit, setting writing standards and never aging.
I'm glad we had Tom Wolfe, and glad Nathan Hill has popped up.
13
Wolfe’s ability to write on diverse topics with such prowess and—at times--biting satire made his works so very enjoyable. I happened to like “The Painted Word” a bit too much for people that fancied themselves as artists….but my favorite had to be “The Right Stuff.”
Wolfe’s works will stand the test of time.
14
"William F. Buckley, Jr., writing in National Review, put it more simply: “He is probably the most skillful writer in America — I mean by that he can do more things with words than anyone else.”"
For a writer, I honestly cannot think of any better legacy than this.
Of allo American writers, Tom Wolfe deserves this acclade; I can picture him
I hope he's already divining verbal riffs for celestial essays about the life of the soul in the blue yonder.
72
Some might say he had The Right Stuff!
9
Is that a sneaker sticking out from behind the blanket? Tailored double-breasted suit and running shoes with a pocket square and I am guessing cuff links complete the outfit.
Love him or not, he was wonderful to read.
47
No, those are not sneakers. I could see where you would think that, but they’re a pair of white and black leather dress shoes. It’s doubtful Mr. Wolfe would have ever conceived of wearing such a suit with sneakers.
Such a great writer with an ability to play with words; not to mention a sharp dresser.
4
Not a sneaker. Spats. A great loss to writing and to men who wear custom-made clothing. His wardrobe belongs in a museum.
3
if you read the article, he wore faux spats.
4
A true American genius.
96
At the time a junior faculty member at a university in southern Callf, I met Mr Wolfe in order to entertain him before his presentation on campus. I suggested to him that computer technology might inhterest him because ti allowed for multimedia combined. He was not interested in computers and said that he preferred handwriting. I mentioned that Henry James insisted upon an amanuensis when he wrote, wanting to hear the sound of her typewriter as he thought and formulated expression.
That interested Wolfe. In appreciation he sent me a handwitten thank you note. It was written in an extraordinay complex script, thick & thin cursive dependant upon pressure exerted on the pen. Wolfe must have peny several hours to compose it.There were no errors.
5