Thomas Wolfe Thomas Wolfe once said, “You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity.” Thomas Wolfe was an American author that wrote in the early 20th century that devoted himself to becoming a successful writer at a very young age. He is known for writing Look Homeward Angel and Of Time and the River. Wolfe had made his life very successful with his hard work and dedication even though it was short lived and ended abruptly. The time period that Thomas Wolfe was born in strongly influenced his writing. Wolfe was born on October 3, 1900 (“Thomas Wolfe”). Growing up in this time period Wolfe and many other children understood that kids will also help the family financially …show more content…
Thomas Wolfe loved when his family came to visit him (Austin 160). Wolfe clearly had a deep connection to his family which can be seen in how so many of his works involve them in it. Since most of Wolfe’s works are mostly autobiographical, many of the characters in his novels have many close similarities and star in events that happened to his family in real life. Wolfe left Harvard to take up an instructor position at New York University instructing english (Kennedy 731). With already such an English rich background, Wolfe was able to gain more knowledge and prove his own by becoming an english professor. As Wolfe gets older his ability to write improves greatly allowing him to write multiple great …show more content…
What keeps Wolfe’s stories from being autobiographical is the fact that he adds fictitious elements such as different names to his stories. Look Homeward Angel is a great example of an “almost” autobiography. Wolfe tells the story of him and his family’s lives but changes the names and places of the people he knew and where he grew up in the story. Wolfe included his family as characters in most of his novels (Austin 115). In Look Homeward Angel, Wolfe included his entire family where he even used some of their first names. Wolfe did not leave out any details that he thought were important throughout the story as he even included the name and death of his brother Ben. Including real elements from his life is what made Wolfe such a successful