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Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. (born March 2, 1931)〔Bloom, Harold. ''Tom Wolfe'', Infobase Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-7910-5916-2, pg. 193.〕 is an American author and journalist, best known for his association and influence over the New Journalism literary movement in which literary techniques are used in objective even-handed journalism. Beginning his career as a reporter, he soon became one of the most culturally significant figures of the 1960s after the publication of books such as ''The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test'' (a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters) and two collections of articles and essays, ''Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers'' and ''The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby''. His first novel, ''The Bonfire of the Vanities'', released in 1987, was met with critical acclaim and was a great commercial success. He is also known, in recent years, for his spats and public disputes with other writers, including John Updike, Norman Mailer, and John Irving. ==Early life and education== Wolfe was born in Richmond, Virginia, the son of Louise (née Agnew), a landscape designer, and Thomas Kennerly Wolfe, Sr., an agronomist.〔''Rolling Stone'' interview on May 2, 2007 (samharris.org ) (Retrieved November 15, 2008)〕〔()〕 Wolfe grew up on Gloucester Avenue in the historic Richmond North Side neighborhood of Sherwood Park. He recounts some of his childhood memories of growing up there in a foreword to a book about the nearby historic Ginter Park neighborhood. Wolfe was student council president, editor of the school newspaper and a star baseball player at St. Christopher's School, an Episcopalian all-boys school in Richmond, Virginia. Upon graduation in 1949, he turned down admission to Princeton University to attend Washington and Lee University, both all-male schools at the time; at Washington and Lee, Wolfe was a member of the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. Wolfe majored in English and practiced his writing outside the classroom as well. He was the sports editor of the college newspaper and helped found a literary magazine, ''Shenandoah''. Of particular influence was his professor Marshall Fishwick, a teacher of American studies educated at Yale. More in the tradition of anthropology than literary scholarship, Fishwick taught his classes to look at the whole of a culture, including those elements considered profane. The very title of Wolfe's undergraduate thesis, "A Zoo Full of Zebras: Anti-Intellectualism in America," evinced his fondness for words and aspirations toward cultural criticism. Wolfe graduated ''cum laude'' in 1951. Wolfe had continued playing baseball as a pitcher and had begun to play semi-professionally while still in college. In 1952 he earned a tryout with the New York Giants but was cut after three days, which Wolfe blamed on his inability to throw good fastballs. Wolfe abandoned baseball and instead followed his professor Fishwick's example enrolling in Yale University's American studies doctoral program. His PhD thesis was titled ''The League of American Writers: Communist Organizational Activity Among American Writers, 1929–1942.''〔Available on microform from the Yale University Libraries, (Link to Entry )〕 In the course of his research, Wolfe interviewed many writers, including Malcolm Cowley, Archibald MacLeish, and James T. Farrell. A biographer remarked on the thesis: "Reading it, one sees what has been the most baleful influence of graduate education on many who have suffered through it: it deadens all sense of style." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tom Wolfe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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