Selections From Tom Wolfe’s Archive -- Including Notebooks and Letters -- To Be Shown in Free Display at The New York Public Library

“Becoming The Man in the White Suit: The Tom Wolfe Papers At The New York Public Library” opens Feb. 13

FEB. 9, 2015 - The New York Public Library will display nearly two dozen selections from the impressive archive of author, journalist, and cultural commentator Tom Wolfe in a free exhibition opening on Feb. 13.

“Becoming The Man in the White Suit: The Tom Wolfe Papers at The New York Public Library” will be open to the public for a limited time on the third floor of the Library’s iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street. It will showcase highlights from Wolfe’s collection -- acquired by the NYPL in 2013 -- including:

  • Correspondence from John Glenn offering corrections to The Right Stuff; Wolfe’s meditation on post-war masculinity and his own immersion into the NASA and U.S. Air Force culture.

  • A letter to himself about The Bonfire of the Vanities, which shows Wolfe's intentions in writing the novel that was serialized in Rolling Stone magazine. The outline also alludes to the racial issues in New York City that propelled him to complete the narrative.

  • A steno book Wolfe carried to “Black Panther Night' at Leonard Bernstein's apartment, which helped shape his 1970 story in New York magazine, entitled "These Radical Chic Evenings" -- a term he coined.

  • Notes from Wolfe's first interview with Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead which would be used for The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

  • A letter from Hunter S. Thompson enclosing his recently published novel - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Tom Wolfe’s archive contains over 90 linear feet of manuscript drafts and outlines for most of Wolfe’s works, including Bonfire of the Vanities, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and The Right Stuff, as well as photographs and notebooks filled with interviews, drawings, research and correspondence.  A frequent patron of the Library, as well as a long-time New York City resident and chronicler of its culture, Wolfe’s rich literary archive was a welcome addition to the Manuscripts and Archives Division, and was acquired with a generous gift from NYPL Trustee Katharine Rayner.

“We have all been Tom Wolfe characters,” says Thomas Lannon, Acting Charles J. Liebman Curator of Manuscripts. “From behind his notepad, Wolfe watched Americans of various backgrounds sway to the beat of ambition and imagination. We hope the selected literary and biographical fragments on display spark new interest in all of Wolfe's books as they provide lucid snapshots of America as it reached for the stratosphere and landed near the Millennium.”

Beginning on Feb. 9 researchers can access the Tom Wolfe papers from the Manuscripts and Archives Division in the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.  A finding aid can be found at http://archives.nypl.org/mss/22833. 

The exhibition - which also includes first editions of several of Wolfe's books from the Library's Berg Collection of English and American literature - will be up through Feb. 27.

The Tom Wolfe Papers were acquired through the generosity of Katharine J. Rayner.

Support for The New York Public Library’s Exhibitions Program has been provided by Celeste Bartos, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos and Adam Bartos Exhibitions Fund, and Jonathan Altman.

Contact:

Sara Beth Joren | sarabethjoren@nypl.org

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