Table of Contents

* Preface * I. A Secret Life * II. The Magical Campus * III. By God, I Have Genius * IV. I Shall Conquer the World * V. Must Spin Out My Entrails * VI. Like Some Blind Thing upon the Floor of the Sea * VII. A Miracle of Good Luck * VIII. Penance More * IX. A Miserable, Monstrous Mis-begotten Life * X. The Famous American Novelist * XI. Almost Every Kind of Worry * XII. Unmistakable and Most Grievous Severance * XIII. A New World Is Before Me Now * Afterword: The Posthumous Novels of Thomas Wolfe * Acknowledgments * Sources, Abbreviations, and Notes * Index

About the Author

David Herbert Donald was Charles Warren Professor of American History and Professor of American Civilization at Harvard University.

Reviews

Supersedes all previous Wolfe biographies in illuminating detail, in empathy for its complex unhappy subject, in sympathy for what he wanted to do, and what he did, as a writer, and in its own literary distinction...A work of great subtlety and sophistication. Washington Post Book World Easily the best biography of an American novelist. Gore Vidal An eloquently told story and an extraordinary achievement. Boston Globe

Supersedes all previous Wolfe biographies in illuminating detail, in empathy for its complex unhappy subject, in sympathy for what he wanted to do, and what he did, as a writer, and in its own literary distinction...A work of great subtlety and sophistication. Washington Post Book World Easily the best biography of an American novelist. Gore Vidal An eloquently told story and an extraordinary achievement. Boston Globe

Wolfe's editor, Maxwell Perkins, argued that no writer was ever less in need of a biographer, so rich and candid was the autobiographical content of his fiction. Donald is the third biographer in 25 years to gainsay Perkinsand the most successful. Less worshipful than his predecessors, Donald has other advantages, too: full access to Wolfe's papers and the death of most of those whose feelings hitherto had to be spared. What emerges is a forthright but disciplined portrait of an explosive genius and his place in modern American letters. Wolfe's turbulent life, extraordinary learning, surprisingly conscious craft, and complex relations with his editors all affected his artistic development. Donald analyzes these matters without psychological or critical buzzwords but leaves unresolved Wolfe's ultimate literary worth. Arthur Waldhorn, English Dept., City Coll., CUNY