Thomas Wolfe society

Thomas Clayton Wolfe was born October 3, 1900 in Asheville, North Carolina. He attended local Asheville schools, graduated from high school at age 15, and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As a sophomore at UNC, one of his poems was published in the University of North Carolina Magazine and he became increasingly active in the Carolina Playmakers, a course in playwriting. His first play, entitled The Return of Buck Gavin, was produced by the Playmakers and starred Wolfe in the lead role. After graduating from UNC in 1920, Wolfe studied playwriting at Harvard University, and completed a Master of Arts degree in literature. He moved to New York, where he alternated for the rest of his life between teaching at New York University, writing and publishing, and traveling frequently to Europe. His first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, published in 1929, prominently featured characters and scenes from his boyhood town of Asheville. His next autobiographical novel, Of Time and the River, followed in 1935. He also published numerous short stories, novellas, and plays during his lifetime. His other two novels - The Web and the Rock (1939), and You Can't Go Home Again (1940) - were both published posthumously. He died on September 15, 1938, at age 38, in Baltimore, Maryland.

From the guide to the Thomas Wolfe Ephemera Collection, 1969-2008, (UNF Library Special Collections and University Archives)