American writer, a major influential reporter and author, who was one of the originators of “the new journalism” of the ’60s, a brilliant, perceptive genius. He originated such phrases as “radical chic,” “the Me decade,” and “the right stuff.” His novel “The Right Stuff,” 1979, was sold for the film rights for a half million dollars but did not do well at the box office. His 1987 best-selling first novel, “Bonfire of the Vanities” was praised and savaged with equal fervor but as a movie rewritten by Hollywood, it failed onscreen.
Wearing a characteristic white suit, best-dressed and dashing, he is soft spoken but thrives on antagonism. He doesn’t just sit back and wait for the pot to boil over, he usually fans the flames.
His second novel and 12th book, “A Man in Full,” was published in November 1998 with a first print run of 1.2 million copies. The book reportedly took him eight years to write.
The son of a college professor and farm trade journal editor dad and a homemaker mom, Tom was the first-born with a younger sister. His early obsessions were with King Arthur, followed by Napoleon and then, literary figures. At high school he was the coeditor of the student newspaper and pitched for the baseball team. At college in Lexington, Virginia, he played ball and majored in English. In 1951, he came to the crossroads of a decision: baseball as a profession or on to Yale. His try-out with the New York Giants made the decision for him; he was not accepted.
Wolfe left Yale with a Ph.D. in 1957 and began work as a cub reporter for the Springfield Union, Massachusetts. He moved quickly to the Washington Post and in 1962, the New York Herald Tribune. An excellent reporter, he got the facts, and got them right. He began his sartorial splendor about that time, custom-made suits and handmade shoes, often in alarming pastels. “It annoyed people tremendously,” he said, “So I liked it.” He was noticed, which he liked even more. As one professor said, “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen Tom Wolfe walking around the University of North Dakota in a canary-yellow tuxedo, a bowler hat and a bowtie. That’s not something you forget.”
The long strike of New York newspapers in 1963 put Wolfe out of work. Writing for Esquire, he created the non-fiction short story, presenting facts dressed in the emotional impact and color of fiction. In the next few years he published over 40 articles in papers and magazines, attracting notice, fame, jealousy and outrage. His first book was “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” in 1968, an instant bestseller that ultimately went through 34 printings.
Though his public life is flamboyant, Wolfe carries privacy to extremes, not answering questions about his personal life nor even the ages of his two kids, Alexandra and Thomas. His 1996 heart attack and subsequent quadruple bypass was kept out of the papers. He had met and married Sheila Berger when she was art director of Harper’s magazine and the family lives in a New York four-story townhouse. His sole admitted hobby is window-shopping.
In autumn of 2004, his third novel was published, and he admitted that he fell into a deep depression a few months after his 1996 heart-bypass surgery.
Wolfe died in Manhattan, New York, on 14 May 2018, aged 88.
Link to Wikipedia biography