Thomas Wolfe Memorial

Thomas Clayton Wolfe drew throughout his literary career on his early years growing up in Asheville. Born on October 3, 1900, he was the youngest of eight children of Julia Elizabeth Wolfe and William Oliver Wolfe. He grew up in the boarding house at 48 Spruce St. that his mother ran for tourists visiting Asheville for its scenic views and healthful air. Based on the turbulence of his youth there, his 1929 novel Look Homeward, Angel followed the childhood and coming of age of a young boy in a small southern mountain town in the early years of the 20th century. Wolfe modeled many of the novel’s more than 200 characters on members of his family and other Asheville residents, renaming his hometown “Altamont” and his mother’s Old Kentucky Home boardinghouse “Dixieland.” Although the novel was hailed as a critical and commercial success, it also stirred anger and resentment in Asheville, where residents recognized locations and people, including friends, relatives, and sometimes themselves, in its candid and often unflattering portrayals. Wolfe was then exiled from Asheville for more than seven years and did not return until 1937, after controversy over his first novel had subsided. Look Homeward, Angel is now regarded as an American classic.

Asheville, North Carolina · United States