Thomas Wolfe Writes From Paris, Anticipating the Upcoming Publication of “Look Homeward Angel”, and Talking of Drinking with F. Scott Fitzgerald

The author, known for his book “You Can’t Go Home Again,” longs for home and his friends in America

A 4-page unpublished letter to his close friend and editor at Scribner’s

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, which evolved into “Look Homeward, Angel”, 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, epitomized by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Wolfe in Paris. In 1930, just after the stock market crash that ended the glittering jazz age, Fitzgerald’s relationship with Zelda was deteriorating. They lived in Paris but she left after her diagnosis of schizophrenia.

One of the enduring symbols of Wolfe is the idea of change epitomized by the idea of going home, which culminated in the posthumous publication of a work “You Can’t Go Home Again,” in which, as Wolfe himself experienced in “Look Homeward Angel”, an author writes a book that changes forever his relationship with his friends and family back home.

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 letter signed, Paris, July 2, 1930, “Just two more days till the dear old Fourth,” to Hart. “Dear Henry, thanks for that nice letter and those three jokes. I’ve tried them over and over and got great results. It was so nice to hear from you. The main news about myself is that I’m working – yes in Paris! – and that I’m leaving in a few days to go to Switzerland. I met Scott Fitzgerald on Sunday afternoon and we had lunch and a few gallons of liquor together. I’ve been going easy on the hard stuff and [historical novelist] Jim Boyd rolled in Monday. I’ve seen him two days running and it has done me a lot of good. I imagine [editor and writer] Fritz Daschiell is on his way here now and I hope I get to see him before I go away.

“My book is coming out in England on July 14, but I don’t think I shall go over for the public celebrations. I want to work and I hope I can do a good book. I continued to miss Scribner’s and seeing you all, and the native land more than I can say. Maybe any love for the Fatherland will come gushing forth in my new book. I want to get high up about 5000 feet – among the industrious and uninteresting Swiss and then think about home very hard.

“Hope you are standing the summer nobly. There’s nothing like a bottle of fine red bothy gin for those warm July days. Go down to some good market and look at the vegetables. Also at all the things you can buy in cans. I can name the varieties by heart. And they all seem beautiful to me.

“Please forgive this dull letter. I’m saving all the good stuff for the book. Please write me, Henry. When you can. I don’t mind the bullshit, make it as thick and rich as you like, it’s like a breath from the New World.

“I wish I had some jokes to tell you – but the French ones often lack point to my American taste. Saw this one the other day – a writer is complaining to his friend that he cannot keep his manuscript because his three year old tears up every scrap she finds. ‘What the hell! Has she learned to read already?’… Well and happy, Tom Wolfe”.

With the envelope signed “Thomas Wolfe.”