Thomas Wolfe was a white novelist and playwright who was born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1900. At just 15 years old, he enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he joined the Carolina PlayMakers and wrote plays with company leader and drama professor Frederick Koch. Wolfe later attended Harvard University, where he continued to study drama and write plays.
Wolfe is primarily known for his epic autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel, published in 1929, which drew heavily on his childhood in Asheville. Due to the novel’s details and parallels to living people, the book was not well received in Wolfe’s hometown and at one point was even banned from the Asheville public library. Outside of Asheville, the novel drew widespread acclaim and pushed Wolfe into literary prominence. Years later, in 1937, he was able to return home to warm reception.
Wolfe followed Look Homeward, Angel with a number of other works, but passed away in 1938 at age 37. Despite a relatively short literary career, he produced an impressive volume of writing and appealed to a large contemporary reader base. Today, Wolfe is considered an influential figure in American literature.