FEATURE!
The University remembers its most famous son
u lhiomas Wolffe
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By JERRY NO WILL
Staff Writer
"But Tom, don't you think you should
dress up for dinner at the chancellor's
house?"
"No. When you're a genius you don't have
to be immaculate!"
So goes one of the many tales of Thomas
Wolfe's very successful, though slightly ec
centric, college career at the University of
North Carolina.,
Wolfe, North Carolina's preeminent
literary genius, graduated from UNC in 1920.
While a student here he was associate editor
of Magazine, associate editor of The Tar
Heel, a member of the Student Council, the
Athletic Council, the German Club, the Di
Society and the Carolina Playmakers and
served as the class poet, among other things.
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Thomas Wolfe memorial behind New East
Tar HeelFrank Clark son
WiUiam E. Brenner, M.D., F.A.C.O.G., F.A.C.S.
opening his practice
Gynecology
Birth Control
"Personal and Confidential Care
109 Conner Driver
(across from University Mall)
942-0011
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Luncheon Specials
available at lunch
11 to 2 p.m. M-F
Pizza Buffet . . . $2.95
Spaohetti ... . . $1.95
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He also accomplished the formidable task
of writing and starring in a play, "The Return
of Buck Gavin" for the Carolina Playmakers.
In the 1920 annual, Wolfe's classmates said
of Wolfe: "He can do more between 8:25
and 8:30 than the rest of us can do all day,
and it is no wonder that he is classed as a
genius."
From UNC, Wolfe went on to receive his
MA. from Harvard, teach at N.Y.U., and
write such highly acclaimed novels as Look
Homeward Angel, The Web and the Rock,
and You Can't Co Home Again.
An Asheville native, Wolfe fictionalized
both that town and Chapel Hill in his semi
autobiographical Look Homeward, Angel,
calling them Altamont and Pulpit Hill.
Wolfe is commemorated on campus in
several ways including a bronze sculpture
near New East by UNC art professor Richard
Kinnard. The work was presented to the uni
versity by the class of 1966 and depicts an
angel figure looking over his shoulder, and
bears only the inscription from Wolfe's fore
ward to Look Homeward, Angel: Oh lost
and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back
again.
The North Carolina Collection in Wilson
Library maintains , a permanent display of
Wolfe memorabilia, a portrait, two sculp
tures, and various editions of all his pub
lished works. There is also an extensive col
lection of photographs, clippings, correspon
dence and manuscripts available to scholars.
Local Thomas Wolfe fans bemoan the
fact that UNC was unable to purchase
Wolfe's literary manuscripts when he died in
1938. As a result a private collector, William
Wisdom, purchased them for $5000 and
gave them to Harvard University. Some ob
servers feel that part of the reason may have
been that many North Carolinians still feel
bitter about some of the less than favorable
descriptions of North Carolina and its resi
dents in Wolfe's writings.
Francis Weaver, Assistant University Ar
chivist and a member of the Thomas Wolfe
Society said, "I think part of the reason we
couldn't raise the money is that he may still
have been regarded a sort of an outcast."
Richard Walser, professor of English at
NCSU, a member of the Thomas Wolfe
Society, and author of a book about Thomas
Wolfe's undergraduate yearsat UNC said, "I
think 'that is rumor or gossip." He said that
UNC made every effort to raise the money
to purchase the manuscripts and that the
"little pockets of resentment" were inef
fectual by 1938.
Both Weaver and Walser stressed the fact
that economic conditions in 1938 made any
kind of fund raising very difficult
Even without the literary manuscripts,
UNC's Thomas Wolfe Collection is growing
steadily. In the near future it will be housed
in the new "Thomas Wolfe Room" when
Wilson Library is converted into the Special
Collections Building.
UNC professor Joseph Flora said in a
paper on Wolfe that "Thomas Wolfe's four
years the the University of North Carolina
were very important in the formation of the
writer that was to be." Likewise, Wolfe's
memory and spirit live on in Chapel Hill and
are very important in the development of
the university that is to be.
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Thursday, August 5, 1982 The Tar Heel 7B