Thomas Wolfe Refers to Himself and TS Eliot as the Gargoyles at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, “looking down sardonically on life”

An unpublished note connecting the two great writers, never before offered for sale

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William Faulkner once said that Thomas Wolfe, who died before age 40, may have been the greatest talent of his generation for aiming higher than any other writer. His influence extends to the writings of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, and to authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others. He was...

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Thomas Wolfe Refers to Himself and TS Eliot as the Gargoyles at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, “looking down sardonically on life”

An unpublished note connecting the two great writers, never before offered for sale

William Faulkner once said that Thomas Wolfe, who died before age 40, may have been the greatest talent of his generation for aiming higher than any other writer. His influence extends to the writings of Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac, and to authors Ray Bradbury and Philip Roth, among others. He was one of the first masters of autobiographical fiction, and his work was filled with details that came from his own life and his home in North Carolina, as well as that of his friends in New York.

Wolfe went to Europe in the summer of 1926 and began writing the first version of an autobiographical novel titled “O Lost” which became “Look Homeward Angel”. The narrative fictionalized his early experiences in Asheville, and chronicled family, friends, and the boarders at his mother’s establishment on Spruce Street. It was submitted to Scribner’s, where the editing was done by Maxwell Perkins, the most prominent book editor of the time, who also worked with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

The novel was published 11 days before the stock market crash of 1929. Soon afterward, Wolfe returned to Europe and ended his affair with Mrs. Bernstein. The novel caused a stir in Asheville, with its over 200 thinly disguised local characters. Wolfe chose to stay away from Asheville for eight years due to the uproar.

When published in the UK in July 1930, the book received great reviews. Both in his 1930 Nobel Prize for Literature acceptance speech and original press conference announcement, Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature, said of Wolfe, “He may have a chance to be the greatest American writer…. In fact I don’t see why he should not be one of the greatest world writers.”

In Europe, Wolfe joined a thriving community of writers, now famous. Among them was writer T.S. Eliot. In June 1927, Eliot converted to Anglicanism from Unitarianism, and in November that year he took British citizenship. He became a warden of his parish church, St. Stephen’s, Gloucester Road, London, and a life member of the Society of King Charles the Martyr. He spent much time in Paris. Eliot was an influence on Wolfe, who was 12 years his junior.

Henry Hart was an editor at Scribner’s. The two had a close and long relationship and corresponded as friends. In this remarkable letter, Wolfe readies for the European publication of “Look Homeward Angel”, discusses his upcoming trip to Switzerland, longs for home, and talks about seeing F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Autograph note signed, June 30, 1930, on the verso of a postcard depicting the gargoyles of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris, overlooking the city. “Dear Henry: This is T.S. Eliot and me looking down sardonically on life. I’m the one at the far corner. T.S. is in the right foreground. Write me sometime.”

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