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octoberlib

(14,971 posts)
Tue May 15, 2018, 11:18 AM May 2018

Tom Wolfe, Pyrotechnic Nonfiction Writer and Novelist, Dies at 87

By Deirdre Carmody and William Grimes

May 15, 2018
Tom Wolfe, an innovative journalist whose technicolor, wildly punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of California surfers, car customizers, astronauts and Manhattans moneyed status-seekers in works like “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,” “The Right Stuff” and “Bonfire of the Vanities,” died on Monday in a Manhattan hospital. He was 87.

His death was confirmed by his agent, Lynn Nesbit, who said Mr. Wolfe had been hospitalized with an infection. He had lived in New York since joining The New York Herald Tribune as a reporter in 1962.

In his use of novelistic techniques in his nonfiction, Mr. Wolfe, beginning in the 1960s, helped create the enormously influential hybrid known as the New Journalism.

From 1965 to 1981 Mr. Wolfe produced nine nonfiction books. “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,” an account of his reportorial travels in California with Ken Kesey and his Merry Pranksters as they spread the gospel of LSD, remains a classic chronicle of the counterculture, “still the best account — fictional or non, in print or on film — of the genesis of the sixties hipster subculture,” the press critic Jack Shafer wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review on the book’s 40th anniversary.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/15/obituaries/tom-wolfe-pyrotechnic-nonfiction-writer-and-novelist-dies-at-87.html

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Tom Wolfe, Pyrotechnic Nonfiction Writer and Novelist, Dies at 87 (Original Post) octoberlib May 2018 OP
Huge loss for the literary world. Zoonart May 2018 #1
R.I.P. dalton99a May 2018 #2
Sad sad day lame54 May 2018 #3
From Bauhaus to Our House. betsuni May 2018 #4
I know him best for The Right Stuff, which was adapted as of my all time favorite movies. Tommy_Carcetti May 2018 #5
I've read all his books. Just recently read The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test for the first time octoberlib May 2018 #8
I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Wolfe speak in Washington D.C. in 2005. John1956PA May 2018 #6
He wasn't my favorite writer, but I've read quite a bit of his stuff over the last few decades. mahatmakanejeeves May 2018 #7
The movie was horrible. They changed it to make it more palatable to American octoberlib May 2018 #19
I devoured the Electric Koolaid Acid Test back in high school. NightWatcher May 2018 #9
Right? Ligyron May 2018 #15
I loved that book. octoberlib May 2018 #21
R.I.P. lunamagica May 2018 #10
When someone looking for an autograph handed Kesey "Electric Kool aid Acid Test" Hassler May 2018 #11
My how times have changed. At one time this would have been front page. nolabear May 2018 #12
Bonfire of the Vanities bucolic_frolic May 2018 #13
That's amazing. I could not put that book down until the end. MoonRiver May 2018 #17
I n the book Bruce Willis' character was a British journalist and they ruined it by casting octoberlib May 2018 #20
Back when late night television was more erudite.... LisaM May 2018 #14
We may not see their like again, more's the pity. Ligyron May 2018 #16
I'm so very sorry to hear it. He was a very great author Glorfindel May 2018 #18

Tommy_Carcetti

(43,085 posts)
5. I know him best for The Right Stuff, which was adapted as of my all time favorite movies.
Tue May 15, 2018, 11:30 AM
May 2018

I would read the book a few years after I read the movie. It had a very distinctive style, not anything like what you'd expect from a piece of historical non-fiction.

octoberlib

(14,971 posts)
8. I've read all his books. Just recently read The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test for the first time
Tue May 15, 2018, 11:35 AM
May 2018

and loved it. I even like his critically panned books. The Right Stuff is one of my top movies.

John1956PA

(2,654 posts)
6. I had the pleasure of hearing Mr. Wolfe speak in Washington D.C. in 2005.
Tue May 15, 2018, 11:32 AM
May 2018

The congenial author delighted the audience with his wit and humorous takes on the ironies of contemporary national politics. One of the themes he conveyed was that the public, in its collective value judgments as to the worthiness of various news stories, was becoming more receptive of tabloid-level reporting.



mahatmakanejeeves

(56,892 posts)
7. He wasn't my favorite writer, but I've read quite a bit of his stuff over the last few decades.
Tue May 15, 2018, 11:33 AM
May 2018

I'm sorry to see him go.



A young Tom Wolfe in New York, via Time

I enjoyed "The Bonfire of the Vanities." I hear the movie wasn't well received, but the book was funny.

octoberlib

(14,971 posts)
19. The movie was horrible. They changed it to make it more palatable to American
Tue May 15, 2018, 02:09 PM
May 2018

audiences. Basically , they dumbed it down.

NightWatcher

(39,343 posts)
9. I devoured the Electric Koolaid Acid Test back in high school.
Tue May 15, 2018, 11:51 AM
May 2018

I felt like I was on the bus and at the shows with them.

Hassler

(3,321 posts)
11. When someone looking for an autograph handed Kesey "Electric Kool aid Acid Test"
Tue May 15, 2018, 01:09 PM
May 2018

He'd sign, Tom Wolfe.

nolabear

(41,915 posts)
12. My how times have changed. At one time this would have been front page.
Tue May 15, 2018, 01:19 PM
May 2018

In fact they’ve changed so much that Front Page doesn’t mean anything.

bucolic_frolic

(42,670 posts)
13. Bonfire of the Vanities
Tue May 15, 2018, 01:31 PM
May 2018

was an underrated movie, and a box office bomb, though I think as satire of the age it portrayed, it was perceived as stereotypical and racist to some if not many. Or it could have been the screenplay - in the book I don't recall the Bruce Willis character in an over-narration asides to cue in the audience. Tom Hanks when he plays satire is so subtle - "Bonfire of the Vanities", "Charlie Wilson's War" for example.

I tried to read the book, and was impressed with Wolfe's whiz!BANG*!* methods of using the language, but didn't have time for it.

octoberlib

(14,971 posts)
20. I n the book Bruce Willis' character was a British journalist and they ruined it by casting
Tue May 15, 2018, 02:12 PM
May 2018

Bruce Willis because he had box office clout.

LisaM

(27,759 posts)
14. Back when late night television was more erudite....
Tue May 15, 2018, 01:46 PM
May 2018

I remember watching him on "Nightline" arguing about deconstructionalism in modern fiction with Margaret Atwood. Those were the days, eh?

Glorfindel

(9,706 posts)
18. I'm so very sorry to hear it. He was a very great author
Tue May 15, 2018, 01:55 PM
May 2018

I enjoyed his books immensely. The world is a poorer place.

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