“…they were the symbol of his babyhood to her, and her sad heart, so keen in marking departures, refused to surrender them.” Look Homeward, Angel Upon seeing a photograph of Thomas Wolfe at age 7 or 8, with long hair styled into thick curls, one might be forgiven for thinking…

“…the great chill tomb of Dixieland, particularly in winter, since Eliza was most sparing of coal.” — Look Homeward, Angel W.O. Gant grumpily observes in Look Homeward, Angel “Your mother has let the Old Barn to Mrs. Revell until she gets back. I went in the other day and found…

Where was Thomas Wolfe on the evening of December 1st, 1937? Accounts vary about the party he attended in New York City, the argument that ensued, and how a book title was born. Wolfe had been invited to a dinner party by author Sherwood Anderson at the apartment of a…

“…he hated most at Dixieland — the dim fly-specked lights, the wretched progress about the house in search of warmth…” — Look Homeward, Angel When Julia Wolfe bought The Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse in 1906, later immortalized as Eliza Gant’s Dixieland boardinghouse, there was already electric wiring installed. However, there…

“Four years later, when he was graduated, he had passed his adolescence, the kiss of love and death burned on his lips, and he was still a child.” - Look Homeward, Angel In 1906 at the age of five, just shy of the typical school starting age, Thomas Wolfe was…

Today, Julia Wolfe’s Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse displays a dozen bedrooms containing a variety of beds. Yet another bed is hidden in plain sight in the front parlor. To the casual viewer, it looks like a cabinet or wardrobe. Open the door and you will find a folding bed, often…

“Thus did he see first, he the hill-bound, the sky-girt, of whom the mountains were his master, the fabulous South.” — Look Homeward, Angel For twelve-year-old Thomas Wolfe, President’s Day came in early March of 1913. He wrote at school, “I have in my life seen two Presidents within the…

“The town seemed to be an enormous blueprint to her: her head was stuffed uncannily with figures and estimates — who owned a lot, who sold it, the sale-price, the real value, the future value, first and second mortgages, and so on.” — Look Homeward, Angel Born in February 1860…

“I’m not afraid of being tarred and feathered and run out of town anymore,” said the huge shaggy-headed fellow who is North Carolina’s best known and undoubtedly, greatest novelist. Thomas Wolfe’s New Year of 1937 began in New Orleans where the city was full of visitors for the Sugar Bowl…