Tom Wolfe, Innovative Nonfiction Writer and Novelist, Dies at 88

NYT ^ | 5/15/18 | By Deirdre Carmody and William Grimes

[Pietro]

RIP Mr. Wolfe.

My fav is a little book called "From Bau House to Our House" that eviscerated modern and international style architecture and the pompous pricks that foisted these monstrosities upon us.

I really believe that small book changed the direction of architecture.

[Sivad]

I was acquainted with Chuck Yeager prior to reading
“The Right Stuff” as we belong to the same sportsmens
club (rifle/pistol, shotgun, archery). I knew about
Yeager’s career in a general way but the book was a
real eye opener. Very good writer was Mr Wolfe. RIP.

[Ohioan]

Tom Wolfe was by a wide margin, my favorite contemporary writer of fiction. He captured contemporary personality types in a manner that was very reminiscent of some of the great Victorian writers.

I wish I had actually met him, as there were some questions I very much would have liked to ask--such as why he changed some of the most innovative passages in the serialized (Rolling Stones) version of the Bonfire Of The Vanities, in the bound volume. The original descriptions bit more deeply into the contemporary absurdities of social interaction in New York.

[morphing libertarian]

agree the book was spot on the movie sucked

[Albion Wilde]

I spy his American Heritage Dictionary in the shelves at the upper left corner.

[jobim]

Tom Wolfe is a lifelong friend for me. He is America's genius chronicler of culture &
mores. In American popularculture, he, like Frank Sinatra, is incomparable, and no one
who follows can escape his influence, nor measure up to his achievement.

[Jack Hammer]

R.I.P. to one of the Twentieth Century’s literary greats.

So many wonderful folks checking out....

[Albion Wilde]

Roger Stone tries to dress like him, but no one could match Tom Wolfe’s “Southern Gentleman” sartorial style. He was a true original, one of a kind.

[Interesting Times]

One of the greatest writers and keenest social observers of his time. RIP.

[ethom]

We are losing too many greats recently!

[detective]

Tom Wolfe was a great author.

Below is a short list of his works.

Non-fiction

The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965)
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
The Pump House Gang (1968)
Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970)
The New Journalism (1973) (Ed. with EW Johnson)
The Painted Word (1975)
Mauve Gloves & Madmen, Clutter & Vine (1976)
The Right Stuff (1979)
In Our Time (1980)
From Bauhaus to Our House (1981)
The Purple Decades (1982)
Hooking Up (2000)
The Kingdom of Speech (2016)

Novels

The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987)
A Man in Full (1998)
I Am Charlotte Simmons (2004)
Back to Blood (2012)

In addition, Tom Wolfe created many phrases that are now in popular usage. Among them are:

Radical Chic
The Me Generation
The Right Stuff
Trophy Wife

[buwaya]

He deserved a Nobel, but won’t get one now.
He is in excellent company however, in the matter of Nobels or anything else.

[Rummyfan]

Social X-Rays....

[wardaddy]

Bela Legosi bump

[NohSpinZone]

I’m biased because I’m a fan but I’m with you. I put Mr. Wolfe up there with William Faulkner (and not just because of their Southern roots).

[Rummyfan]

A review of his latest from 2016:

The Kingdom of Speech

[Liz]

[Verginius Rufus]

He was 87 (born March 2, 1931).

Did he use his nickname because there had already been a famous writer named Thomas Wolfe (1900-1938)?

[jumpingcholla34]

One of the good guys. He somehow got away with non-PC stuff that would have gotten other writers slaughtered.

[Albion Wilde]

Yes.