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=Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. by Anne Marie Hudson=

Thomas (Tom) Kennerly Wolfe was born to Thomas and Helen Wolfe in Richmond Virgina in 1931. Tom Wolfe was an only child. He attended many schools including St. Christopher's which was a private school Washington and Lee University. He graduated Cum Laude with a B.A. in 1951. Tom then went on to receive a PH.D in American Studies from Yale University. Tom felt as though he had to "settle for Yale." Tom married Sheila Berger in 1978 together they had one child, a daughter named Alexandra. Wolfe moved around through many different journaling occupations. He wrote for the Springfield Union from 1956 until 1959 he then moved on to the Washington Post where he wrote from 1959-1962. The last institution he is know for writing for was the New York Sunday Magazine from 1962 until 1966 (which later became the New York Magazine). By going to work for a paper, Tom was determined to place himself within the tradition of great American novelists including Twain, Crane, and Hemingway. After working for the New York Sunday Magazine Wolfe went on to writing numerous works.

Tom was a unique individual who enjoyed window shopping and crisp suits. He often carried not only his sartorial splendors but himself in crisp, creamy vanilla white suits. Wolfe began wearing the suits in 1962. In an interview with Leslie Bennets, Tom told her of his beginning with these notorious suits: “That (1962) was when I had a white suit made, started wearing in January, and found it annoyed people tremendously. Even slight departures in dress at that time really spun people out. So I like it. It's kind of a harmless form of aggression, I guess”

Wolfe was a very controversial writer who pushed the envelope in many different areas. He was known for having a colorful background for a writer. He was once a Semi-professional ball player. His colorful background allowed Wolfe to arrive "at zonky conclusions couched in scholarly terms" (Vonnegut __Contemporary Authors__, 879).

To feel at home with his subjects he was writing about, Tom would submerse himself in their cultures. Some of those cultures included stock car racers, striptease artists, astronauts, and gamblers in Las Vegas. Tom would not, however, try to act as if he was one of these people. He felt as if imitated the group he wish to know more about would not only insult them but also harm his studying of them. Wolfe is credited with developing New Journalism. New Journalism is a form of writing that unites traditional newspaper reportage with techniques of fiction like extended dialog and detailed scene-setting. Wolfe's style became known as New Journalisms, he incorporated street-slang with obscure terminology, eccentric punctuations with random thoughts.

Wolfe wanted to cross that line of comfort with his writings. He not only stuck his toes in but jumped head first into subjects that were not talked about even though they went on in the world. Wolfe explored drugs in everyday life and corruption of down home politics. He exploited many groups including the Black Panther Party. A Time Magazine reporter once asked a minister of the Panthers Party about the truthfulness in Wolfe's __Radical Chic__, the minister replied “You mean that dirty,blatant, lying racist dog who wrote the fascist disgusting thing in the New York magazine?” (Tom Wolfe Database). Wolfe was able to open up many American opinions with his literature.

Wolfe's style was unarguably one of the most eccentric and mind boggling autors of his time. Wolfe describes his new journalistic style best by saying it is “a garage sale ... vignettes,odds and ends of scholarships, bits of memoir, short busts of sociology, apostrophes, epithets, moans, cackles, anything that came into my head.” (A review of A Man in Full)

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

"A Review of A Man in Full."DISCovering U.S, History. Online Detroit:Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold.Gale. Fuquay Varina High School/WCPS/.22 May. 2008 This essay was not as helpfull as I though it would be, that is due to my own misunderstanding though. I did not full comprehend this source before deciding to use it. I recommend this for those people interested in a detail review of Wolfes work. I used a quote from this source to help wrap things up.

"Wolfe, Tom (1930-)."DISCovering U.S, History. Online Detroit:Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold.Gale. Fuquay Varina High School/WCPS/.22 May. 2008 This Biographical Essay was very helpful in my research. I gained the majority of my information from this database. This database contained a wide variety of information on Tom Wolfe and his life. The format was easy to follow and focused mainly on his works. I used this information throughout my essay. I would recomend this to anyone wanting to gain a lot of knowledge on Tom Wolfe.

"New Journalism in the 1960s."DISCovering U.S, History. Online Detroit:Gale, 2003. Student Resource Center - Gold.Gale. Fuquay Varina High School/WCPS/.22 May. 2008 The essay __New Journalism in the 1960s__ was an essay about how Tom Wolfe helped father New journalism. This essay did not have a wide variety of information but it did have detailed information. This essay had a very easy format to follow. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for detailed examples of Tom Wolfe's literary actions. I will use this information to explain the different breakthroughs Tom Wolfe aided in.

Preston, Michelle. "Tom Wolfe." __American Writers.__ Eds.Lea Baechler, A. Walton Litz. New York: Charles Schriber's Sons, 1991. 567-589" The book __American Writers__ by Michelle Preston was an excellent resource. This book contain information on many different American authors and had a lot of interesting quirky facts about these authors. The book was organized alphabetically and the format was very easy to follow. Not only did it contain quirky facts the book was also very informative about Tom Wolfe's hobbies, his background and also his younger years. I plan on using this text to highlight Tom Wolfe's personality and interesting characteristic's.I would recommend this text to anyone who wants more than just the normal information about an author of interest.

"Thomas Wolfe." __Contemporary Authors: New Revision.__ Eds. Anne Evory, Linda Metzger. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1983. 532-539 This book, __Contemporary Authors:New Revision__, was not the best resource available. This book was mainly the same context as the earlier version. With the except of two facts, I found the same information in the new revision as I did in the original version. I plan on using this information when i talk about Tom Wolfes family life. I would recommend this to anyone who has not read the original __Contemporary Authors__ reference book.

"Thomas Wolfe. "__Contemporary Authors.__ Eds.Clare D. Kinsman.Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1975. 879-880 The __Contemporary Authors__ reference book, which was eddited by Clare Kinsman, was a fairly good resource. The book was organized alphabetically and had a very easy to follow format. This book gave the basic information I needed like where Tom Wolfe was born, what schools he attended and it listed some of his publications.I plan on using the information from this book to help me describe the basics of Tom Wolfe's life. I would recomend this to anyone who wants a brief overview of an authors life since this book did not go into great detail.