"At that instant he saw, in one blaze of light, an image of unutterable conviction, the reason why the artist works and lives and has his being--the reward he seeks--the only reward he really cares about, without which there is nothing. It is to snare the spirits of mankind in nets of magic, to make his life prevail through his creation, to wreak the vision of his life, the rude and painful substance of his own experience, into the congruence of blazing and enchanted images that are themselves the core of life, the essential pattern whence all other things proceed, the kernel of eternity." -Thomas Wolfe

Thomas Wolfe's works, which are acclaimed to be among the most influential of any American writer's, were almost literally rooted in his varied personal experiences. His early life experiences and heritage gave him an insatiable appetite for life. Although his life was short he was able to write some of the best American Literature of the twentieth century. His ability to appeal to everyone through his literally biographical novels, which contain rich imagery and deep moral resolution, has had a profound impact on American Literature.

Thomas Wolfe's early life greatly influenced

Thomas Wolfe was one of the only authors to use his history so literally in the form of a fictional novel. He was also one of the only authors to accomplish so much in such a short time. On September 15, 1938 Wolfe died of tubercular meningitis. His unsatisfied appetite to experience everything so fast had proved tragically true. Wolfe, after his death, left many unfinished manuscripts behind. The editor Edward Aswell turned these manuscripts into Wolfe's last two novels The Web and the Rock and You Can't Go Home Again ("Wolfe, T."). Thomas Wolfe was praised as the first to idealize the American dream (Muller, 11). Wolfe has also been put on the same level as Balzaac, Dickens, Melville and Dostoyevsky by some critics (Muller, 3). Although he made no original contribution to the methods and materials in fiction, his writing has been read and has influenced many. Jack Kerouac described him as one of his main influences. Kerouac's first novel The Town and Country was an emulation of Wolfe's style.

Julia and W.O. Wolfe had a marriage almost as non-existent as their love for each other (10). W.O. was a tombstone engraver, and Julia was a housewife with an interest in real estate. The parents would often fight openly in front of their children. A reoccurring reason for this fighting was W.O.'s "spree drinking". Wolfe's father was an alcoholic who would be able to abstain for months, often lecturing on the evils of drinking, only to go on another drinking binge. This pattern would plague W.O. for his entire life, and would be on of the many wedges driven between him and Julia (6). These marital problems took their toll on young Thomas. His parents, who would sometimes blame the stress associated with the unhappy marriage on the child, often verbally abused him because he was the last one, and almost an accidental birth (14). This left Wolfe with a sense of being unloved and therefore he always had a craving to be praised and recognized. Another pattern that developed due to his parental relationships was one of seeking a paternal or maternal figure throughout is life (Nowell, 24). This seeking constitutes almost the entire them of Wolfe's second great novel Of Time and the River.

Donald, David Herbert. Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe.

Boston: Little Brown And Company, 1987.

< http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/5/0,5716,79415+1+77344,00.html>

Wolfe's second novel was Of Time and the River. This follows the now older Eugene through his struggles trying to be a playwright after leaving college. In this novel Eugene struggles with his past yet again. He sees his hometown Altamont as a place of death. This also was true of Wolfe in his real life. By the time Wolfe was writing Of Time and the River, he had lost three brothers, a sister, and his father. It was at this time that he met another parental figure in his life. Maxwell Perkins was Wolfe's editor in the last years of Wolfe's life. Wolfe saw Perkins as a fatherly figure. Wolfe's relationship with Perkins is described in the book The Story of a Novel ("Wolfe, T.").

Some common words found in the essay are:
Thomas Wolfe, Homeward Angel, WO Wolfe, North Carolina, Thomas Wolfe's, Street Elementary, York University, St Louis, Fitting School, Carolina Magazine, thomas wolfe, north carolina, university north carolina, university north, homeward angel, wolfe's life, york university, professor baker, wolfe spent, thomas wolfe's, wolfe thomas, north fitting school, novel homeward angel, thomas wolfe's life, wolfe thomas wolfe,
Approximate Word count = 3055
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)