A Story of the Buried Life - The Thomas Wolfe Memorial

Considered by many to be one of the giants of 20th-century American literature, Thomas Wolfe immortalized his childhood home in his epic autobiographical novel, Look Homeward, Angel. Functioning as a state historic site, the Old Kentucky Home is a memorial to the life of Thomas Wolfe. For more information on the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, visit wolfememorial.com/.
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[@maryguy9013]

My mother has stayed in this house when she was about 17, She told us of hearing Mr. Wolfe moving around in his room when he was there, She also met his mother Julia and helped her with chores around the boarding house. My mother passed in 2004.

[@johnbgriffinjr116]

How wonderful to have had that experience! 😊

[@hdrake1000]

I used to think Thomas Wolfe wrote a few books that got published and was considered a hero. One freezing cold day in Asheville when I worked downtown I took a tour. It was so cold I was the only one there. I bought one of his books, The Web and The Rock. Thomas Wolfe is a full fledged Genius! He is my favorite writer. I used to come to the Memorial on Sunday and sit on the porch. It is such a peaceful place.

[@DanaTasama]

One of my dreams is to visit this memorial. Thomas Wolfe is my favorite writter, he is a poet! And his Angel is amazing. I love it. I am from Colombia but I am waiting for that day...

[@brianschroth7078]

I agree - I'd love to visit this place someday. I read the original version of Angel, "O Lost" and I thought it was epic and fantastic. I highly recommend this deeper dive if you love Angel - it's out of print but you can find it used online.

[@jackjohnhameld6401]

As a Scottish boy in love with American literature, I first came upon the name Thomas Wolfe in Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie. Steinbeck called Wolfe a great writer and cited You Can't Go Home Again, which appeared six years later, in 1970 or so, when I was at university. Penguin published Wolfe's posthumous novel, edited by Maxwell Perkins, to great acclaim.

[@johnbgriffinjr116]

This was a wonderfully produced and presented video. I’m so looking forward to visiting the property this coming June!!! Many thanks for this presentation.

[@dcnunez100]

This was fascinating! Now on my bucket list ❣️

[@cynthiahawkins2389]

Grover (The LOST BOY) at the candy store....oh, still tugs my heart. And the way his father reacts. Won't spoil the ending for those who have not read it. How Wolfe evokes this child on the page so that we can see him, plain as day.

[@roddymoore]

It took my French-born, older, German wife, and her cousins, to take me out of my comfortable stability in Germany, to get me into Wolfe. I grew up in Eastern North Carolina, a totally different vibe from the Western part of NC, what a revelation to me, and Wolfe was not taught in the boarding school I was sent to in Virginia, was considered, I assumed, a bit too racy. We had a gas in Altamont last March and hope to get there again soon. Thank you for your work.

[@robmcgowan351]

I had just watched the movie "Genius" on Amazon Prime this month. I have visited the Asheville area many times and was not aware of this museum. Thank you for this intro of the museum. Maybe one day I will visit and read his writings in the meantime.

[@MrABCD1234EFGH]

Found upon searching Oct.5th Birthday...Thomas Wolfe seems to be a formidable writer, I will check my local library for his works. The fact that his mother took it upon herself to create such a wonderful atmosphere for the young Wolfe proved to be honorable & profitable to her son Thomas...Thank you for sharing such a lovely Memorial to the writer Thomas Wolfe...The Harshaw's

[@cmcginnis100]

I took a tour late last week. I've lived in the general area most of my life and that was the first time I have taken the tour. It was awesome. 85% original items. I will go back again soon to take in more.

[@debborland7902]

Terrific video! Thank you for sharing! Insightful and on target.

[@parpadeoymepierdotodo63]

Some day I will take an airplane from Spain ti visit this memorial, I caught up with his literature

[@olive3700]

I just read "The Risen," by Ron Rash, where this house and Thomas Wolfe are mentioned at length. So nice to be able to see it here.

[@susanfisher9142]

Very interesting. Thank you!

[@cynthiahawkins2389]

In this day and age of text messages and byte-phrases like IMHO, BTW, OMG, at which I know Wolfe would have cringed..the modern, techno type of 'shorthand language' is a betrayal of the flowing, oceanic prose he so loved and used, masterfully . No surprise, TW wrote "O", instead of the standard "Oh"..probably a tip of the hat to Walt Whitman, whom I am SURE he must have read and admired. Those long, spun out phrases, as readers ride the wave (sorry for all the aquatic references, here..) I will never think of October - quite the same way again.

[@composerdoh]

Thomas Wolfe "short" story= what... 400-500 pages or so? ;-) Just kidding. I haven't read much of him, as I just don't have much time to read for fun anymore, but every passage I've read or heard read aloud of his I've found mesmerizing.

[@mwj5368]

Hi Rob! I think you would like the book Scribners published. I have the 1939 print, a collection of poetic excerpts from many of Wolfe's works. With your fast-paced life you'd love it. I bought it in a used book store about 33 years ago ha! The copyright is Scribners, but inside it notes, "The Literary Guild of America Inc 1939". I've kept it at my bedside for years. It has an intro by John Hall Wheelock. It has beautiful Art Deco era illustrations in it too. It's hard cover covered in black cloth and a nice kind of paper with the ragged edges. I think the ragged edge was designed to give the look of hand-made paper. What led me to Wolfe was 3 times different people, at different places, after hearing me read my writing at writer's groups, said I reminded them of him. There's no way I'm that great ha! I see a used copy for cheap at www.thriftbooks.com the exact URL is way too long to post here.

[@composerdoh]

@@mwj5368 Thank you! I'll see if I have time to check it out. But I'm too busy answering comments and getting distracted by youtube! LOL Just kidding- I really appreciate you suggesting it. I'll try the link!

[@composerdoh]

@@mwj5368 btw- don't sell yourself short! What makes any artist great is only partly talent. He was largely great because he spent so much time on his work. If you work as hard at your craft as Wolfe did and you have the time to spend on it, you might very well find your work stands near his, if it doesn't already! PS- I'd recommend you limit yourself to imitating his craft and his art, not his interpersonal habits. From what I can tell he was quite the narcissist and selfish brat. You might choose a different role model for that part of life. On that front I'd recommend Thich Nhat Hahn... or Gandhi or Thomas Merton or someone like that. ;-)

[@mwj5368]

@@composerdoh Thank you very much for your advice and encouraging words! I've done a lot of fiction writing and won some awards, and many years ago some professors liked some nonfiction I wrote, but never published and all is in mothballs. That's interesting about Wolfe's nature and had read he was irascible. I've read some of Merton's books and passages from the Desert Fathers and used to keep his "We are ruled and resigned to let ourselves be ruled..." poem on my wall when I was in my teens. I have his conjectures book at my bedside. I like Hahn's mindfulness and a lot more. I do random acts of kindness and a couple of times gave to his fund for his retreat centers and watched some of their videos. I've read about Ghandi and some of his sayings and should read more. That's something how you mentioned them! The director of Wurlitzer Foundation, Henry Sauerwein, said one of his great achievements in life was when he got Wolfe out of Nazi Germany. Henry said he was the only civilian member of the Joints Chiefs of Staff in its history and the Generals hated him ha! I'm too verbose and sorry about that! I didn't look at names but it sounds like you work at the Wolfe Museum.(?) Thanks for all you do!

[@callipitter8474]

If walls could talk......

[@tricorntom2254]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Wolfe certainly had a thousand words for every picture, every image (yea, the literary antithesis of Hemmingway, who believed in a tight economy of words). But no one painted pictures, and emotions, and the human heart like Wolfe did, with his voluminous, monster sentences. The Russians like him best.

[@terry4137]

I assume it got burnt down.