Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. (born March 2, 1931) is an American author and journalist, best known for his association and influence over the New Journalism literary movement in which literary techniques are used in objective, even-handed journalism. Beginning his career as a reporter, he soon became one of the most culturally significant figures of the sixties after the publication of books such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters) and two collections of articles and essays, Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. His first novel entitled The Bonfire of the Vanities, released in 1987, was met with critical acclaim and was a great commercial success.He is also known, in recent years, for his spats and public disputes with other writers, including John Updike, Norman Mailer, and John Irving.
St. Christopher's School (1949), Washington and Lee University, Yale University
Spouse
Sheila Wolfe
Movies
The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Last American Hero, Almost Heroes
Star Sign
Pisces
#
Trademark
1
White suit
#
Quote
1
I have never knowingly, I swear to God, written satire. The word connotes exaggeration of the foibles of mankind. To me, mankind just has foibles. You don't have to push it!
2
[on being asked if he read the reviews of his books] Oh, I pretend to be like Arnold Bennett, the British novelist who was very popular in the '20s and '30s, He was considered a light-weight, so he didn't get particularly good reviews. He would say, 'I don't read my reviews. I measure them.' But if they come to my attention, I'll read them and I'll suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune just like anybody else.
3
People complain about my exclamation points, but I honestly think that's the way people think. I don't think people think in essays; it's one exclamation point to another. And also I have a new device in this book ['Back to Blood']. Inner monologues are set between a row of six colons at the beginning and six colons at the end. I rather like that, if I might praise myself.
4
There was a time in the 1930s when magazine writers could actually make a good living. 'The Saturday Evening Post' and 'Collier's' both had three stories in each issue. These were usually entertaining, and people really went for them. But then television came along, and now of course, information technology..the new way of killing time. It's replaced knitting and things like that.
5
[on visiting a strip club to explore some background for a novel] I'd shaken the hands of about five girls - only they don't shake hands. Their greeting is to clasp you on the inside of the thigh. Very friendly. I had on a necktie. I guess nobody else did in the whole place.
6
[on Elaine's restaurant in New York City] It was Clay Felker who really put that place on the map. So he had an article done for New York magazine, and that's all it took. The next thing you know, there's directors, actors, broadcasters like Tom Brokaw coming in.
7
[on Cary Grant] To women, he is Hollywood's lone example of the Sexy Gentlemen. And to men and women, he is Hollywood's lone example of a figure America, like most of the West, has needed all along: a Romantic Bourgeois Hero.
$950,000
