Fine writer, great play. Here's more on him: There are an abundance of parallels between the play and Wolfe's own personal life. Wolfe grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, which was at that time a middle class mountain resort town dazzled by real estate speculation. Wolfe's Mother, Julia E. Wolfe (in the play the character's name is Eliza Gant), was ahead of her time as a successful real estate speculator. Wolfe felt her interest was a disease that interfered with her duties as a wife and mother. William Oliver Wolfe, his father, was a tombstone maker with a great vigor for living and a constant need to hurl himself against the prison bars of his dreary provincial life. Wolfe and Frings changed the name of this shell of a man to W.O. Gant. While he provided well for his large family, this man delighted in all of the robust sensual aspects of life. He drank heavily, and in an inebriated state often verbally stormed at his family with great torrents of rhetoric and quotes from Shakespeare.
Wolfe was the youngest of eight children, six of whom survived to adulthood. During his childhood the family member closest to him was his brother Benjamin. In Look Homeward, Angel Ben is portrayed as a loner who hides his love for his youngest brother behind a mask of short temper and sarcastic denial. It is perhaps through Ben's feelings of bitter regret for his own lost opportunities that Thomas Wolfe acquired his drive to escape his provincial life so he could go out into the world to achieve his dream of being a writer. Wolfe would write Look Homeward, Angel nine years before his death. Frings adapted Wolfe's 1929 novel into a play that premiered on Broadway in 1957 starring Anthony Perkins, Jo Van Fleet, and Hugh Griffith. The production ran for 564 performances and received six Tony nominations, but alas did not take home a single award. > -----Original Message----- > From: John W. Redelfs [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, November 18, 2003 9:40 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [ZION] The Return of the King > > > RB Scott wrote: > >I'll stick with Tom. I'm a low brow kinda guy. > > What do you know about Thomas Wolfe who wrote Look Homeward, Angel? I > almost borrowed that one before I noticed Tom Wolfe right next to > it on the > shelf. > > > John W. Redelfs [EMAIL PROTECTED] > =========================================== > "While we cannot agree with others on certain matters, we > must never be disagreeable. We must be friendly, > soft-spoken, neighborly, and understanding." (President > Gordon B. Hinckley, October 2003) > =========================================== > All my opinions are tentative pending further data. --JWR > > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// > //////////// > /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// > /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// > /////////// > > > ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n.YXJjaGl2 Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------
