Editing Tom Wolfe (section)

==Early life and education==
Wolfe was born on March 2, 1930, in [[Richmond, Virginia]], the son of Helen Perkins Hughes Wolfe, a garden designer, and Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Sr. (1893–1972), an [[Agronomy|agronomist]] and editor of ''The Southern Planter''.<ref name=TimesObit>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/obituaries/tom-wolfe-pyrotechnic-nonfiction-writer-and-novelist-dies-at-88.html|title=Tom Wolfe, Author of 'The Right Stuff' and 'Bonfire of the Vanities,' Dies|last1=Carmody|first1=Deirdre|last2=Grimes|first2=William|date=May 15, 2018|website=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=May 15, 2018 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7N9oAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Thomas+Kennerly+Wolfe%22+richmond|title=The Gang that Wouldn't Write Straight: Wolfe, Thompson, Didion, and the New Journalism Revolution|first=Marc|last=Weingarten|date=January 1, 2006|publisher=Crown Publishers|isbn=9781400049141|via=Google Books}}</ref>

He grew up on Gloucester Road in the Richmond North Side neighborhood of [[Sherwood Park (Richmond, Virginia)|Sherwood Park]]. He recounted childhood memories in a foreword to a book{{which|date=January 2024}} about the nearby historic Ginter Park neighborhood. He was student council president, editor of the school newspaper, and a star baseball player at [[St. Christopher's School (Richmond, Virginia)|St. Christopher's School]], an [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] all-boys school in Richmond.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.richmond.com/news/obituary/tom-wolfe-dapper-dean-of-new-journalism-who-never-forgot/article_2e14db30-d940-5073-8a47-c56a88ba5926.html |title=Tom Wolfe, dapper dean of 'new journalism' who never forgot his Richmond roots, dies at 88 |newspaper=Richmond Times-Despatch |date=May 16, 2018 |access-date=May 17, 2018 }}</ref>  In 1991, he wrote another touching remembrance of his childhood in Sherwood Park in a letter to a man who purchased the Wolfe home place.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/tom-wolfes-sweet-memories-of-his-childhood-home-will-make-you-cry/ |title=Tom Wolfe's Sweet Memories of His Childhood Home Will Make You Cry|last1=Griffith|first1=Carson|date=May 17, 2018 |website=www.architecturaldigest.com |access-date=July 5, 2022}}</ref>

Upon graduating in 1947, he turned down an offer to enroll at [[Princeton University]] to attend [[Washington and Lee University]].<ref>{{cite news |work=ABC news |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/renowned-author-tom-wolfe-dies-88/story?id=55177168 |access-date=May 17, 2018 |title=Renowned author Tom Wolfe dies at 88 }}</ref> At Washington and Lee, Wolfe was a member of the [[Phi Kappa Sigma]] fraternity. He majored in English, was sports editor of the college newspaper, and helped found a literary magazine, ''Shenandoah,'' giving him opportunities to practice his writing both inside and outside the classroom. Of particular influence was his professor [[Marshall Fishwick]], a teacher of American studies educated at [[University of Virginia|UVA]] and [[Yale University|Yale]]. More in the tradition of anthropology than literary scholarship, Fishwick taught his students to look at the whole of a culture, including those elements considered profane. Wolfe's undergraduate thesis, entitled "A Zoo Full of Zebras: Anti-Intellectualism in America," evinced his fondness for words and aspirations toward cultural criticism. Wolfe graduated ''[[Latin honors#Types|cum laude]]'' in 1951.

While still in college, Wolfe continued playing baseball as a pitcher and began to play semi-professionally. In 1952, he earned a tryout with the [[History of the New York Giants (baseball)|New York Giants]], but was cut after three days,<ref name=TimesObit/> which he blamed on his inability to throw good fastballs. Wolfe abandoned baseball and instead followed his professor Fishwick's example, enrolling in [[Yale University]]'s [[American studies]] doctoral program. His Ph.D. thesis was titled ''The League of American Writers: Communist Organizational Activity Among American Writers, 1929–1942.''<ref name="Wolfe-1956">{{cite book |last1=Wolfe |first1=Thomas Kennerly Jr. |title=The League of American Writers: Communist Organizational Activity Among American Writers, 1929–1942 |date=1956 |url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/4958f4792d94b8c05b293b55f23735f0/1 |via=ProQuest |language=en}}</ref><!-- <ref>Available on microform from the Yale University Libraries, [http://orbis.library.yale.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search%5FArg=Wolfe%20Thomas%20Kennerly&Search%5FCode=NAME%5F&CNT=50&PID=qdDw89mqbpVPbrSDSeEdi6ynqhFT&BROWSE=2&HC=1&SID=1 Link to Entry]{{Dead link|date=July 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> --> In the course of his research, Wolfe interviewed [[Malcolm Cowley]], [[Archibald MacLeish]], and [[James T. Farrell]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Ragen|2002|pp=6–10}}</ref> A biographer remarked on the thesis: "Reading it, one sees what has been the most baleful influence of graduate education on many who have suffered through it: It deadens all sense of style."<ref>{{Harvnb|Ragen|2002|pp=9}}</ref> Originally rejected, his thesis was finally accepted after he rewrote it in an objective rather than a subjective style. Upon leaving Yale, he wrote a friend, explaining through expletives his personal opinions about his thesis.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://americandigest.org/tom-wolfe-a-man-in-full/| title = Tom Wolfe: A Man in Full}}</ref>