Tom Wolfe, 1930-2018, RIP

from the Times obit

I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when the news of Wolfe's death arrived the other day--important enough that it popped up on my iPhone from several of the news sources whose pings keep me awake, if not alert. I mean, he was 88 years old (my father died at 87), and his days of swooping around the country--doing, observing, writing, speaking--had reached a few feeble wing flaps in recent years. Here's a link to the New York Times obituary--and they had some follow-up features and reactions today, as well.

I read most--not all--of Wolfe's books and remember the flurry of cultural activity about The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987). I was proud that I'd read it before the film came out. I thought he got a little "full of himself" as the years went on ... but why not? He was everywhere. TV talk shows, the radio, etc. People wanted to know what he thought about ... well, about anything. And he was happy to elaborate in his clever, unique style.

Joyce and I heard him speak one time down at KSU's Stark Campus in October 1995--their Midwest Writers Conference. I checked my faultless file system and saw that I had not taken any notes on his appearance--nor had I saved the program. (And I didn't begin keeping a regular journal until 1997.) We do have (I just looked) a signed copy of Bonfire (1st printing!), but I can't recall if he signed it for us that night? My memory is that that there was no signing at all--but these days my memory is about as reliable as a rusty flintlock: It will fire now and then (after some effort), but it's not all that accurate. And it sometimes blows up in my face.

I checked the Akron Beacon-Journal online (via newspapers.com) and saw that the paper had both a preview and a post-view story about his appearance that long-ago Friday night. And it's a good thing because I don't remember much of what he said--just that slick white-suit appearance and his absolute ease before an audience.

Here's the lead on the piece that ran on October 8:

Author Tom Wolfe, whose press-release biography calls him “the pre-eminent social commentator of our time,” told the Midwest Writers Conference here yesterday that America is in a period of a “new proletariat”—a society in which working people live like lords.

Well, that hasn't aged well ...

My Wolfe folder has quite a few clippings--but most are simply reviews and features about him that ran in various periodicals over the years. Sic transit gloria mundi.

I really did enjoy reading him--most of the time. And it was clear that he loved all that writing had done for him: It had elevated him to an eminence from which few are allowed to view their world. And he saw a lot--though not always clearly.