In Thomas Wolfe Interviewed, 1929-1938, Aldo P. Magi and Richard
Walser have brought together twenty-five accounts of Thomas Wolfe
talking to the press, ranging from the first interview he gave, a
conversation with a student journalist for New York University's
Daily News, to the last, an interview with the Portland Sunday
Oregonian in July 1938, only a few months before his death. These
encounters with the working press have an appealing intimacy rarely
found in biographies or scholarly studies. Wolfe, always happy to
meet with journalists, was ever ready to talk about the writing of
Look Homeward, Angel, about Scribner's acceptance of the
manuscript, and about the book's popular reception. ""As my book
began to grow before me, a wild sense of exultation and joyous
elation seized me,"" he told an interviewer for the Rocky Mountain
News. Walking along New York's Fifth Avenue with another
interviewer just after Look Homeward, Angel's appearance, Wolfe
spotted a copy prominently displayed in a bookstore window and
proudly pointed it out. ""His eyes came away from the window
unwillingly,"" the reporter noted. Nor did Wolfe shy away from
addressing the outrage his first novel occasioned in his hometown.
""If they think I have intended to case reflections on my old home
and my own people they have gone far wrong,"" he told an
interviewer for the Asheville Times. Wolfe talked about his
southern upbringing, his education, his frequent trips to Europe,
and his life in New York. He enjoyed discussing his favourite
authors and books, as well as what he himself planned to write in
the future. Wolfe had tremendous faith in America's ability to
produce a great national literature. Headnotes and afterwords place
each interview in perspective, heightening the reader's grasp of
the varied situations in which Wolfe met with reporters. In some
instances, the interviewers themselves reflect on their meetings
with Wolfe. For these interviews the journalists had no tape
recorders and did not conduct the sort of length, in-depth
interviews that have now become common. The interviews are,
instead, often the products of several hours of questioning, put
together from jotted down notes and from the reporters' memories.
Since most of these interviews have been buried in newspaper
archives for decades, even veteran Wolfe scholars will find much
here that is fresh and useful.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
(4)
