Editing Thomas Wolfe (section)

==Early life==
Wolfe was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the youngest of eight children of William Oliver Wolfe (1851–1922) and Julia Elizabeth Westall (1860–1945). Six of the children lived to adulthood.<ref name="unc wilmington">{{cite web|title=Bio |work=UNC Wilmington Library |url=http://library.uncwil.edu/wolfe/bio.htm |access-date=November 10, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091017075504/http://library.uncwil.edu/wolfe/bio.htm |archive-date=October 17, 2009 }}</ref> His father, of [[Pennsylvania Dutch]] descent,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Meindl |first=Dieter |date=2009 |title=Thomas Wolfe and Germany: modernism and anti-anti-semitism in 'dark in the forest, strange as time' and 'I have a thing to tell you' |url=https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA219589350&sid=googleScholar&v=2.1&it=r&linkaccess=abs&issn=02765683&p=AONE&sw=w&userGroupName=anon%7E12603d77&aty=open-web-entry |journal=Thomas Wolfe Review |volume=33 |quote=Thomas Wolfe's interest in Germany was rooted in fairy tales, an early admiration of Goethe, and his father's Pennsylvania Dutch descent. |access-date=January 28, 2024}}</ref> was a successful stone carver and ran a gravestone business.

W. O. Wolfe's business used an angel in the window to attract customers. Thomas Wolfe "described the angel in great detail" in a short story and in ''Look Homeward, Angel''. The angel was sold and, while there was controversy over which one was the actual angel, the location of the "Thomas Wolfe angel" was determined in 1949 to be Oakdale Cemetery in Hendersonville, North Carolina.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/658697515/|title=Where is the real Thomas Wolfe angel?|last=Boyle|first=John|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|date=April 24, 2020|page=A2|via=newspapers.com|access-date=July 27, 2020}}</ref>

Wolfe's mother took in boarders and was active in acquiring real estate. In 1904, she opened a boarding house in St. Louis, Missouri, for the [[Louisiana Purchase Exposition|World's Fair]]. While the family was in St. Louis, Wolfe's 12-year-old brother, Grover, died of [[typhoid fever]].

[[File:Thomas Wolfe's Home.jpg|left|upright=0.9|thumb|[[Thomas Wolfe House]], 48 Spruce Street in Asheville]]
In 1906, Julia Wolfe bought a boarding house named "Old Kentucky Home" at nearby 48 Spruce Street in Asheville, taking up residence there with her youngest son while the rest of the family remained at the Woodfin Street residence. Wolfe lived in the boarding house on Spruce Street until he went to college in 1916. It is now the [[Thomas Wolfe House|Thomas Wolfe Memorial]].<ref name="nytimes blog">[http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/thomas-wolfes-angel-of-death/ Thomas Wolfe's 'Angel' of Death] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101119023538/http://papercuts.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/01/thomas-wolfes-angel-of-death/ |date=November 19, 2010 }}, ''[[The New York Times]]'' blog – May 1, 2009</ref> Wolfe was closest to his brother Ben, whose early death at age 26 is chronicled in ''[[Look Homeward, Angel]]''.<ref name="unc wilmington"/> Julia Wolfe bought and sold many properties, eventually becoming a successful real estate speculator.<ref name="unc wilmington"/>

Wolfe began to study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) when he was 15 years old. A member of the [[Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies|Dialectic Society]] and [[Pi Kappa Phi]] fraternity, he predicted that his portrait would one day hang in New West near that of celebrated North Carolina governor [[Zebulon Vance]], which it does today.<ref name="nc memorial">{{cite web | title = Thomas Wolfe Timeline | work = Wolfe Memorial | url = http://www.wolfememorial.com/life.html | access-date = November 10, 2009 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121120174416/http://www.wolfememorial.com/life.html | archive-date = November 20, 2012 }}</ref> Aspiring to be a playwright, in 1919 Wolfe enrolled in a playwriting course.<ref name="critical reception"/> His one-act play, ''The Return of Buck Gavin'', was performed by the newly formed [[PlayMakers Repertory Company#History of the Carolina Playmakers|Carolina Playmakers]], then composed of classmates in Frederick Koch's playwriting class, with Wolfe acting the title role. He edited UNC's [[student newspaper]] ''[[The Daily Tar Heel]]''<ref name="unc wilmington"/> and won the Worth Prize for Philosophy for an essay titled "The Crisis in Industry". Another of his plays, ''The Third Night'', was performed by the Playmakers in December 1919. Wolfe was inducted into the Golden Fleece honor society.<ref name="nc memorial"/>

Wolfe graduated from UNC with a bachelor of arts in June 1920, and in September, entered Harvard University, where he studied playwriting under [[George Pierce Baker]]. Two versions of his play ''The Mountains'' were performed by Baker's 47 Workshop in 1921. While taking Baker's 47 Workshop course he befriended the playwright [[Kenneth Raisbeck]] who was Baker's graduate assistant. Wolfe later based the character of Francis Starwick in his semi-autobiographical novel ''[[Of Time and the River]]'' (1935) on Raisbeck.<ref>{{cite book|title= The Starwick Episodes|chapter=A Portrait of Kenneth Raisbeck|first=Richard S.|last= Kennedy|editor-first=Richard S.|editor-last=Kennedy|page=5|publisher=[[LSU Press]]|isbn=9780807119754|year=1994}}</ref>

In 1922, Wolfe received his master's degree from Harvard. His father died in Asheville in June of that year. Wolfe studied another year with Baker, and the 47 Workshop produced his 10-scene play ''Welcome to Our City'' in May 1923.

Wolfe visited New York City again in November 1923 and solicited funds for UNC, while trying to sell his plays to Broadway. In February 1924, he began teaching [[National Council of Teachers of English|English]] as an instructor at New York University (NYU), a position he occupied periodically for almost seven years.