Editing Thomas Wolfe (section)

==Career==
Wolfe was unable to sell any of his plays after three years because of their great length.<ref name="nc memorial"/> The [[Theatre Guild]] came close to producing ''Welcome to Our City'' before ultimately rejecting it, and Wolfe found his writing style more suited to fiction than the stage.<ref name="critical reception"/> He sailed to Europe in October 1924 to continue writing. From England he traveled to France, Italy and Switzerland.

On his return voyage in 1925, he met [[Aline Bernstein]] (1880–1955), a scene designer for the Theatre Guild. Twenty years his senior, she was married to a successful stockbroker with whom she had two children. In October 1925, she and Wolfe became lovers and remained so for five years.<ref name="nc memorial"/> Their affair was turbulent and sometimes combative, but she exerted a powerful influence, encouraging and funding his writing.<ref name="nc memorial"/>

Wolfe returned to Europe in the summer of 1926 and began writing the first version of an autobiographical novel titled ''O Lost''. 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. In the book, he renamed the town Altamont and called the boarding house "Dixieland". His family's surname became Gant, and Wolfe called himself Eugene, his father Oliver, and his mother Eliza. The original manuscript of ''O Lost'' was over 1,100 pages (333,000 words) long,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/5752 |title=Thomas Wolfe - North Carolina Digital History |access-date=February 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160823091533/http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-newcentury/5752 |archive-date=August 23, 2016 }}</ref><ref name="sons of perkins">{{cite book | title = The Sons of Maxwell Perkins: Letters of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe, and Their Editor | last = Bruccoli| first = Matthew | year = 2004| orig-year = 2004| publisher = University of South Carolina Press| location = Columbia, South Carolina| page = xviii}}</ref> and considerably more experimental in style than the final version of ''Look Homeward, Angel''. It was submitted to [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner's]], where the editing was done by [[Maxwell Perkins]], the most prominent book editor of the time, who also worked with [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]] and [[Ernest Hemingway]]. He cut the book to focus more on the character of Eugene, a stand-in for Wolfe. Wolfe initially expressed gratitude to Perkins for his disciplined editing, but he had misgivings later. It has been said that Wolfe found a father figure in Perkins, and that Perkins, who had five daughters, found a sort of foster son in Wolfe.<ref name="nytimes 2000"/>

The novel, which had been dedicated to Bernstein, was published 11 days before the [[stock market crash of 1929]].<ref name="nc memorial"/><ref name="critical reception3">{{cite book| title = Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception | last = Reeves| first = Paschal| year = 1974| orig-year = 1974| publisher = Ayer Publishing| isbn =0-89102-050-0 | page = xix}}</ref> Soon afterward, Wolfe returned to Europe and ended his affair with Bernstein.<ref name="nytimes 2000"/> The novel caused a stir in Asheville, with its over 200 thinly disguised local characters.<ref name="nc memorial"/><ref name="kephart">[https://web.archive.org/web/20151016223816/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_6759/is_30/ai_n28413324/ Horace Kephart and Thomas Wolfe's "abomination," Look Homeward, Angel], ''Thomas Wolfe Review'' - 2006</ref><ref name="margaret roberts">[http://www.buncombecounty.org/GOVERNING/depts/Library/Gallery/women/image.asp?images=20&keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=700 Margaret E. Roberts (Mrs. John Munsey Roberts), Buncombe County Library] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101215095945/http://www.buncombecounty.org/GOVERNING/depts/Library/Gallery/women/image.asp?images=20&keepThis=true&TB_iframe=true&height=500&width=700 |date=December 15, 2010 }}</ref> Wolfe chose to stay away from Asheville for eight years because of the uproar; he traveled to Europe for a year on a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]].<ref name="nc memorial"/><ref name="nc archives">{{cite web| title = Thomas Wolfe| work = North Carolina Department of Archives and History| url = http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/nc/NCSITES/ASHEVILL/wolfe.htm| access-date = November 10, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20100416224925/http://statelibrary.ncdcr.gov/nc/NCSITES/ASHEVILL/wolfe.htm <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = April 16, 2010}}</ref><ref name="critical reception xxii">{{cite book| title = Thomas Wolfe, The Critical Reception| last = Reeves| first = Paschal| year = 1974| orig-year = 1974| publisher = Ayer Publishing| isbn =0-89102-050-0 | page = xxii }}</ref> ''Look Homeward, Angel'' was a bestseller in the United Kingdom and Germany.<ref name="critical reception3"/> Some members of Wolfe's family were upset with their portrayal in the book, but his sister Mabel wrote to him that she was sure he had the best of intentions.<ref name="wj cash mabel">{{cite news| title = His Sister Knew Tom Wolfe Well| work = The Charlotte News| date = July 30, 1939| url = http://www.wjcash.org/WJCash2/Prophet.Reader/She.Knew.Tom.Wolfe.Well.htm| access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref>

After four more years writing in Brooklyn,<ref name="critical reception xxii"/> the second novel Wolfe submitted to Scribner's was ''The October Fair'', a multi-volume epic roughly the length of [[Marcel Proust]]'s ''[[In Search of Lost Time]]''. After considering the commercial possibilities of publishing the book in full, Perkins opted to cut it significantly and create a single volume. Titled ''[[Of Time and the River]]'', it was more commercially successful than ''Look Homeward, Angel''.<ref name="nc memorial"/> In an ironic twist, the citizens of Asheville were more upset this time because they had not been included.<ref name="vqr volkening">{{cite news| title = Tom Wolfe: Penance No More| work = Virginia Quarterly Review| date = Spring 1939| url = http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1939/spring/volkening-tom-wolfe/| access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref> The character of Esther Jack was based on Bernstein.<ref name="nytimes 2000"/> In 1934, [[Maxim Lieber]] served as his literary agent.

Wolfe was persuaded by [[Edward Aswell]] to leave Scribner's and sign with [[Harper & Brothers Publishers|Harper & Brothers]].<ref name=NCU>{{cite web|title=Edward C. Aswell Papers on Thomas Wolfe|url=http://www2.lib.unc.edu/ncc/ref/tw/cw3.html|publisher=North Carolina University at the Louis Round Special Collections Library|access-date=April 23, 2014}}</ref> By some accounts, Perkins' severe editing of Wolfe's work is what prompted him to leave.<ref name="vqr catawba">{{cite web| title = Thomas Wolfe's "Old Catawba" | work = Virginia Quarterly Review| date = July 8, 2009| url = http://www.vqronline.org/blog/2009/07/08/wolfe-old-catawba/| access-date = November 10, 2009 }}</ref> Others describe his growing resentment that some people attributed his success to Perkins' work as editor.<ref name="nytimes 2000">{{cite news| title = Looking Homeward To Thomas Wolfe; An Uncut Version of His First Novel Is to Be Published on His Centenary| work = The New York Times| date = October 2, 2000| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/02/books/looking-homeward-thomas-wolfe-uncut-version-his-first-novel-be-published-his.html |access-date=November 10, 2009| first=Dinitia| last=Smith}}</ref> In 1936, [[Bernard DeVoto]], reviewing ''The Story of a Novel'' for ''Saturday Review'', wrote that ''Look Homeward, Angel'' was "hacked and shaped and compressed into something resembling a novel by Mr. Perkins and the assembly-line at Scribners".<ref>David Donald, ''Look Homeward'' (1987), 376-7</ref><ref name="southern journal">{{cite journal |last1= Roberts|first1= Terry|year= 2000|title= Resurrecting Thomas Wolfe |journal=Southern Literary Journal|volume= 33|issue= 1|pages= 27–41|doi= 10.1353/slj.2000.0012|doi-access= free|url= https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/12/article/31710/pdf}}</ref>

Wolfe spent much time in Europe and was especially popular and at ease in [[Germany]], where he made many friends. However, in 1936 he witnessed incidents of discrimination against [[Jews]], which upset him and changed his mind about the political developments in the country.<ref name="southern journal"/> He returned to America and published a story based on his observations ("I Have a Thing to Tell You") in ''[[The New Republic]]''.<ref name="southern journal"/> Following its publication, Wolfe's books were banned by the German government, and he was prohibited from traveling there.<ref name="southern journal"/>

In 1937, "Chickamauga", his short story set during the [[American Civil War]] [[Battle of Chickamauga|battle of the same name]], was published.<ref>{{cite book|title=Chickamauga, and other Civil War Stories|editor=Foote, Shelby|year=1993|publisher=Random House Publishing |isbn=0-385-31100-1|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/chickamaugaother0000unse}}</ref> Wolfe returned to Asheville in early 1937 for the first time since publication of his first book.<ref name="southern journal"/>