Stuart Wright Collection: Tom Wolfe Papers

1968-1982
Manuscript Collection #1169-016
Creator(s)
Wolfe, Tom
Physical description
0.5 Cubic Feet, 2 archival boxes, 1 oversized folder, 12 items, 508 p., Stuart Wright Collection: Tom Wolfe Papers (#1169-016) consist of proofs of three of his published works, including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Drawings by Tom Wolfe In Our Time, (1980), Tom Wolfe: The Purple Decades, A Reader (1982) & loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection.
Preferred Citation
Stuart Wright Collection: Tom Wolfe Papers (#1169-016) East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Repository
ECU Manuscript Collection
Access
Access to audiovisual and digital media is restricted. Please contact Special Collections for more information.

Papers of Tom Wolfe (1968-1982) documenting the life and literary career of the noted Richmond, Virginia-born American novelist, journalist, critic and essayist, associated with the New Journalism literary movement, consisting of proofs of three of his published works, including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Drawings by Tom Wolfe In Our Time, (1980), Tom Wolfe: The Purple Decades, A Reader (1982) & loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection.


Biographical/historical information

Tom Wolfe, born Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, was born March 2, 1930, to Louise Agnew and Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Sr. in Richmond, Virginia. Wolfe attended St. Christopher's School, an Episcopalian all-boys school in Richmond, Virginia, where he became student council president, editor of the school newspaper and a star baseball player. He received a BA in English from Washington and Lee University, in 1951. He continued to play baseball in college and earned a tryout with the New York Giants as a pitcher, but was cut after three days. He then enrolled in Yale University's American Studies graduate program, earning a Ph.D. in 1957. Wolfe's graduate studies helped him to develop a more complete understanding of his cultural environment, which he subsequently applied to his writings.

After graduation, Wolfe turned down academic positions and continued to work as a newspaper reporter, a job he began in 1956 with the Springfield Union (Springfield, Massachusetts). In 1959, Wolfe moved to the Washington Post but found writing about politics uninteresting. In 1962, he took a reporting job at the New York Herald Tribune where his editors encouraged him to become more adventurous and creative in his articles. Wolfe followed their lead and is today considered one of the seminal writers to practice New Journalism, a style he helped develop in the 1960's that combines news reporting with the literary practices. Wolfe continued to practice this writing style when he began writing books. An example of this technique is found in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). In this book, which described the adventures of the Merry Pranksters, a famous sixties counter-culture group, Wolfe used onomatopoeia, free association, and eccentric punctuation — such as multiple exclamation marks and italics — to convey the manic ideas and personalities of the Pranksters.

Besides his journalistic activities, Wolfe has also written novels, art criticism, and various non-fiction works on such topics as architecture, popular culture, and politics. Recognition for his writing includes the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award for prose style; the American Book Award for Nonfiction; and Columbia University Journalism Award. The collection contains materials from 1968 to 1982, covering proofs of three nonfiction works.

Tom Wolfe died on 14 May 2018, in New York City. According to his agent, he had been suffering from an infection. Wolfe is survived by his wife of 40 years, Sheila (Berger) Wolfe, a graphic designer and formerly the art director for Harper's Magazine, and their two children: Alexandra Wolfe, a reporter, and Tommy Wolfe, a sculptor and furniture designer. He was 88.

Sources: Tom Wolfe. [Biographical Sketch] Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wolfe

Tom Wolfe, Pyrotechnic 'New Journalist' and Novelist, Dies at 88 [Obituary] by Deirdre Carmody and William Grimes, New York Times (15 May 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/obituaries/tom-wolfe-pyrotechnic-nonfiction-writer-and-novelist-dies-at-88.html

Author: Jonathan Dembo, 11/18/2011; revised 1/23/2012, 11/5/2016, 11/15/2016, 5/15/2018

Stuart T. Wright. The Tom Wolfe Papers were collected and compiled by Stuart T. Wright. Wright was born on 30 March 1948 in Roxboro, North Carolina. He was the son of Frances Critcher Wright (1919-2010) and Wallace Lyndon Wright (1921-1965). An avid reader as a boy, Wright developed a strong interest in the American Civil War and with his father toured many of the war's battlefields searching for artifacts and studying the history of the era. At the age of 12, he won a statewide "Johnny Reb" essay contest and by the age of 15 had visited every major battlefield of the Civil War. Wright attended Roxboro High School, from which he graduated in 1966. It was during these years that he developed an interest in collecting historical books and manuscripts and began relationships with a number of local collectors and dealers.

In the fall of 1966, Wright enrolled at Wake Forest University as a pre-med, history, German and music student. Wright earned a B.A. in German and music in 1970. As a graduate student at Wake Forest University, Wright focused his studies on Southern history and literature, his ambition being to build an authoritative Southern Studies collection for the university. He received a master's degree in Southern Studies in 1973 and a second master's degree in U.S. History in 1980. Additionally Wright holds a professional degree from England in a medically related field. It was while studying there that he became interested in Thomas Wolfe, the noted North Carolina native and novelist.

Following his graduation from Wake Forest, Wright began to develop his collections more systematically, acquiring many first editions of Southern writers. In 1976 he began teaching at Reynolda House, a Wake Forest University affiliate dedicated to the arts and arts education. Wright taught classes in American music as well as human anatomy for art students. In 1978 Wright became Lecturer in Education at Wake Forest University. During his 10 years teaching at Wake Forest University, Wright authored numerous works of Civil War and North Carolina history, and dozens of articles, bibliographies, essays and reviews on Southern literature and the writers whose papers he collected. In addition, he developed a strong interest in the writings of the English poet Donald Davie and the Minnesota-born poet Richard Eberhart, whose works he also collected.

At the same time, Wright also began a career as a publisher by starting Palaemon Press in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. By 1984, Palaemon Press had produced 316 titles, consisting mainly of broadsides and limited editions, of the poetry and essays of such Southern writers as A. R. Ammons, Fred Chappell, James Dickey, William Goyen, George Garrett, and Eudora Welty. He also built comprehensive collections and compiled book-length descriptive bibliographies of A.R. Ammons, Andrew Lytle, Reynolds Price, James Dickey, William Goyen, Walker Percy, Randall Jarrell, Peter Taylor, George Garrett, Richard Eberhart, and Donald Davie. As well as serving as editor of the contemporary literature section of the Bulletin of Bibliography throughout the 1980s, Wright also contributed pioneering checklists of the writings of Southern poets Henry Taylor, Charles Wright, and Robert Morgan. For Meckler Publishing he served as series editor for a number of book-length bibliographies and checklists. In recognition of these accomplishments, when he was just 32, Wright was elected to membership in New York's prestigious Grolier Club.

All of these works are represented in the Stuart Wright Collection. In his dealings with these various authors Wright made consistent efforts to acquire personal papers, letters and documents, photographs, manuscripts, drafts, proofs, and published materials to supplement his continuing activities as a purchaser of their works. In this way, Wright acquired perhaps a majority of his overall collection. Over the years a number of biographers used Wright's collection to aid their research. For example, James A. Grimshaw, Jr. used the collection extensively for his Robert Penn Warren: A Descriptive Bibliography, 1922-1979 published by the University Press of Virginia, in 1981 and Craig S. Abbott did so as well for John Crowe Ransom: A Descriptive Bibliography, published by Whitston Publishing Company, Inc. in 1999. Joseph Blotner also used the Wright collection in researching Robert Penn Warren: A Biography, published by Random House in 1997.

Nevertheless, from the mid- to late 1980s, Wright began to look for a permanent home for his collection, which he felt had grown too large and yet had been too little used. Unable to find a repository willing to accept the entire collection under suitable conditions, he sold a number of individual author collections to Vanderbilt University, Duke University, the University of Texas at Austin, and Emory University. It was not until 2010 that he reached agreement to house the remaining, and largest part of his collection at East Carolina University. The Stuart Wright Collection in the East Carolina Manuscript Collection of J.Y. Joyner Library includes 22 sub-collections of the papers of Southern American writers. The related Stuart Wright Book Collection holds several thousand volumes by or about many of the same writers. Many of these volumes contain annotations, inscriptions, and insertions that reveal much about the authors in the collection and their relationships with one another. In 1998 Wright moved to England, and since 2001 he has resided in the medieval market town of Ludlow, in Shropshire.


Scope and arrangement

Stuart Wright Collection: Tom Wolfe Papers (#1169-016) document the life and literary career of Tom Wolfe, 1968-1982. The Wolfe Papers are arranged in original order in 3 series, including an original acquisition of 2 series and Ludlow Addition # 1. The collection contains a variety of materials including an uncorrected proof, a galley proof, an oversized corrected proof, and loose manuscript items transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection. Among the more notable items is an early copy of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968) (uncorrected proof) which has been said to epitomize American life in the 1960's. Its focus is on the Merry Pranksters, a counter-culture group, led by Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey, a New Journalist like Wolfe, who abandoned traditional writing styles to experiment with excessive use and unconventional placement of punctuation and italics, and the use of onomatopoeia. Drawings by Tom Wolfe: In Our Time (1980) (galley proof) is a collection of 37 pen and ink illustrations by Wolfe that take aim at a variety of celebrities including newscasters, revolutionaries, and politicians. The Purple Decades: A Reader (1982) (oversized corrected proof) contains 20 of Wolfe's best known essays from previous books.

Series 1: Proofs and Printed Materials, 1868, 1980, consists of proofs of books Wolfe wrote including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Drawings by Tom Wolfe In Our Time, (1980. Series 1 is held in Box 1.a- 1.b.

Series 2: Oversized Proof, 1982, consists of a proof of Tom Wolfe: The Purple Decades, A Reader (1982). Series 2 is held in oversized folder 1.b.os.1.

Series 3: Ludlow Addition #1 to the Stuart Wright Collection contains loose manuscript items that were transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection, 1968-1982. Series 3 includes publication notes and advertising but also includes a note from Tom Wolfe to Stuart Wright and one Stuart Wright note to Tom Wolfe. Series 3 is held in Box 2.a - 2.e


Administrative information
Custodial History

21 June 2010, 0.545 cubic feet; 1 archival box & 1 oversized folder; 3 items; 499 p. Papers (1968-1982, undated) documenting the life and literary career of Tom Wolfe, the noted American novelist and essayist, consisting of proofs of three of his published works, including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968), Drawings by Tom Wolfe In Our Time, (1980), Tom Wolfe: The Purple Decades, A Reader (1982). Vendor: Stuart Wright.

20 July 2012, (Ludlow Addition #2), 0.25 cubic feet; 1 archival box; 9 items; 9 p. Papers (1968-1982) documenting the life and literary career of Tom Wolfe (1931-), the noted American author and journalist, associated with the New Journalism literary movement, consisting of loose manuscript materials transferred from the Stuart Wright Book Collection. Vendor: Stuart Wright.

Source of acquisition

Purchased from Stuart Wright, 6/21/2010, 7/20/2012

Processing information

Processing, Container List & Preliminary inventory by Jonathan Dembo, revised 11/19/2010, 11/15/2016; & Container List, 6/6/2011, 10/5/2016; Final inventory by Krystal Cook, revised 2/16/2011; revised by Douglas Tuers, 4/27/2011; revised by Nathaniel King, 2/5/2016; Finding aid by Jonathan Dembo, 11/18/2011; revised 1/23/2012 & 11/5/2016; Encoded by Jonathan Dembo, 7/3/2012; Encoding revised by Jonathan Dembo, 7/18/2012, 11/15/2016

Copyright notice

Literary rights to specific documents are retained by the authors or their descendants in accordance with U.S. copyright law.


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Key terms
Personal Names
Wolfe, Tom
Topical
Authors, American--20th century

Container list
Box 1 Folder a Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, The, by Tom Wolfe [Books] (19 Aug. 1968) Uncorrected Proof. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Inc. Spiral bound. 1 item. 185 p. Note: Autographed by author on title page., The, by Tom Wolfe [Book] (19 Aug. 1968) Uncorrected Proof. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Inc. Spiral bound. 1 item. 185 p. Note: Autographed by author on title page
Box 1 Folder b Drawings by Tom Wolfe In Our Time, by Tom Wolfe [Books] (July 1980) Galley Proof. New York, N.Y.: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Inc. Soft cover bound. 1 item. 124 p. Note: Autographed by author on title page
Folder os1 Tom Wolfe: The Purple Decades, A Reader, by Tom Wolfe [Books] (1982) Corrected Proof. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, Inc. Unbound. 1 item. 190 p. Note: Autographed by author on title page: "To Stuart, Tom Wolfe"; oversized, folded
Box 2 Folder a From Bauhaus to Our House, by Tom Wolfe (© 1981) Note : 1) Tom Wolfe, New York, NY. Postcard to Stuart Wright on pronunciation of Bauhaus and Our House as a "perfect rhyme" (8 Dec. 1981) ANS. 1 item. 1 p. ; 2) Envelope with typed label : "Tom Wolfe Postcard about From Bauhaus to Our House" (ca. 1981) Typescript. 1 item. 1 p. ; 3) Tom Wolfe, New York, NY. Postcard to Stuart Wright saying "Of course, everybody or everybody South of Quantico, knows that Bau and house rhyme" (24 Nov. 1981) ANS. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #170.032
Box 2 Folder b Painted Word, The, by Tom Wolfe (© 1975) Note : 1) Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., New York, NY. New Release on Tom Wolfe's Latest Book (11 March 1975) Mimeographed typescript. 1 item. 1 p. ; 2) Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., New York, NY. Review copy slip for The Painted Word (ca. 2 June 1975) Printed form. 1 item. 1 p. ; 3) Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., New York, NY. Publicity portrait of Tom Wolfe for The Painted Word ; Photo credit : Nancy Crampton ; autographed "Tom Wolfe" on face (ca. 2 June 1975) Photographic print. Black & White. 5" x 7" 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #192.016
Box 2 Folder c Pump House Gang, The, by Tom Wolfe (© 1968) Note : 1) Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., New York, NY. Review copy slip for The Pump House Gang (ca. 19 Aug. 1958) Printed form. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #192.017
Box 2 Folder d Purple Decades, The, by Tom Wolfe (© 1982) Note : 1) "A Knight of Puddletown c. 1400" Bookmark. C. J. Creed, Printer, Bridgeport, Dorset, UK (undated) Printed. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #170.033
Box 2 Folder e Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, by Tom Wolfe (© 1970) Note : 1) Stuart Wright note : "You reeker, I found it stuck in my copy of Rad Chic!" (undated) AN. 1 item. 1 p. ; Source : Ludlow Addition Box #198.049