Look Homeward, Angel
Thomas Wolfe. Look Homeward Angel
general fiction
general fiction
Thomas Wolfe is North Carolina's most celebrated writer. Certainly, his fame has endured since the publication of his first novel Look Homeward Angel in the early 1920's. Look Homeward Angel, as almost every North Carolinian knows, is one of the finest “coming-of-age” novels ever written. It is the story of Eugene Gant, who grows up in a small southern mountain city, in his mother's boarding house, close to his father's stone cutting business, always struggling to find his place in the world.
Thomas Wolfe's life was the model for Eugene's. He was born in Asheville where his father was a stonecutter and his mother ran a boarding house. Wolfe entered Chapel Hill when he was 15. At first he was a misfit, but by the time he graduated he had been editor of the school newspaper and an active participant in the drama courses and productions inspired by the great teacher of “folk drama,” Frederick Koch.
After college, Wolfe moved to New York hoping to become a successful playwright. But his plays were too long and he failed to have them produced. On a trip to Europe, he began writing down his memories of growing up in Asheville. Three years later, these memories became Look Homeward Angel. The book and its author were an immediate success.
Wolfe was able to devote the remaining few years of his life to writing, but it took him six years after the publication of Look Homeward Angel to complete Of Time and the River, which continued the story of Eugene Gant. None of Wolfe's later works were as successful as Look Homeward Angel, but their rich narratives confirmed his talents and earned for him a place in any list of America’s great writers. ~ D.G. Martin
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