Once at a journalism conference I accidentally walked up to him (not noticing the white suit and long line of people waiting to greet him) to ask directions to the ladies room. He politely complied. I also enjoyed his books. That’s my brush with Tom Wolfe. 🙂
Great NYT obit, never realized his biting wit and satire also extended to art and architecture and that he had a feud with Normal Mailer, John Updike and John Irving! I’ve mostly read his nonfiction but really liked Bonfire of the Vanities as well
TOM WOLFE: “Now, the book, ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities,’ is about New York City in the 1980s in a period of money fever. I mean, there has never been such wealth as that generated in New York chiefly by the investment banking industry…. What I’m saying is there’s been tremendous, enormous wealth, that’s part of prosperity and freedom. This leads to extreme forms of — to use an old-fashioned word, which I seem to be doing all the time this afternoon, vanity — and I’ve seen it in the ’80s go right from Wall Street, all the way from Wall Street, to the South Bronx where I did a lot of my research. I’ll never forget walking through the South Bronx doing research for this book and seeing these boys, 13, 14 years old, with these necklaces on. And hanging as pendants from the necklaces were steel, or silvery anyway, rings. And in these rings were upside-down ‘Y’s, which I thought were peace symbols. And I said, ‘Isn’t it interesting that these boys here in the poorest part of New York are so civic-minded. They’re concerned about the threat of nuclear destruction and so on.’ Of course, I looked more closely and they were Mercedes-Benz hood ornaments. They knew what a Mercedes-Benz was. They knew how much it cost because they knew that all hot shots drive them. The drug dealers drive them. And they wanted theirs. And they were taking the only part that they could now get, which was the hood ornament. This was the money fever spreading right down to the bottom rungs of the social ladder. Now, this is New York. This is vanity operating on all sides.”
? Surely you don’t mean the NC novelist that was born in 1900.
Different Thomas Wolfe…
@Deborah thanks.
Tom Wolfe, author of Bonfire of the Vanities, etc.
I know I read that and went whoa, now how long has he been dead?
It is Tom Wolfe, author of Bonfire of the Vanities. One of my most favorite books. One of the few books I loved, but not one sympathetic character.
I forgot he wrote The Right Stuff.
Our book club just read The Right Stuff a couple months ago/I learned so much.
One of my favorite books!! (The Right Stuff)
I think that is Tom Wolfe. Different author.
Tom Wolfe. Bonfire of the Vanities writer. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/15/tom-wolfe-journalist-and-author-dies-aged-87
Sad to lose one of the grrats☹️
Once at a journalism conference I accidentally walked up to him (not noticing the white suit and long line of people waiting to greet him) to ask directions to the ladies room. He politely complied. I also enjoyed his books. That’s my brush with Tom Wolfe. 🙂
Great NYT obit, never realized his biting wit and satire also extended to art and architecture and that he had a feud with Normal Mailer, John Updike and John Irving! I’ve mostly read his nonfiction but really liked Bonfire of the Vanities as well
Loved his “Bonfire of the Vanities”. Great book
TOM WOLFE: “Now, the book, ‘The Bonfire of the Vanities,’ is about New York City in the 1980s in a period of money fever. I mean, there has never been such wealth as that generated in New York chiefly by the investment banking industry…. What I’m saying is there’s been tremendous, enormous wealth, that’s part of prosperity and freedom. This leads to extreme forms of — to use an old-fashioned word, which I seem to be doing all the time this afternoon, vanity — and I’ve seen it in the ’80s go right from Wall Street, all the way from Wall Street, to the South Bronx where I did a lot of my research. I’ll never forget walking through the South Bronx doing research for this book and seeing these boys, 13, 14 years old, with these necklaces on. And hanging as pendants from the necklaces were steel, or silvery anyway, rings. And in these rings were upside-down ‘Y’s, which I thought were peace symbols. And I said, ‘Isn’t it interesting that these boys here in the poorest part of New York are so civic-minded. They’re concerned about the threat of nuclear destruction and so on.’ Of course, I looked more closely and they were Mercedes-Benz hood ornaments. They knew what a Mercedes-Benz was. They knew how much it cost because they knew that all hot shots drive them. The drug dealers drive them. And they wanted theirs. And they were taking the only part that they could now get, which was the hood ornament. This was the money fever spreading right down to the bottom rungs of the social ladder. Now, this is New York. This is vanity operating on all sides.”
Rereading it now, and amazed at the characterizations. We could change several backgrounds easily, and have it take place in D.C, here in 2019.
I loved THE RIGHT STUFF
Very different but heard he died 2 days ago, read a couple of his books, Bonfire of the Vanities and articles he wrote, interesting dude.