J. Todd Bailey Thomas Wolfe Collection M2023.03

    J. Todd Bailey Thomas Wolfe Collection– M2023.03

    Table of Contents

    Summary Information

    Repository

    UNC Asheville Special Collections and University Archives

    Title

    J. Todd Bailey Thomas Wolfe Collection

    ID

    M2023.03

    Date [inclusive]

    1919-2018

    Extent

    49.5 Linear Feet

    Description Note

    The collection consists of books, plays, periodicals, books on tape, criticisms, newspaper articles, magazines, small press publications, book catalogs, bibliographies, pamphlets, correspondence, artwork, and assorted ephemera.

    Location Note

    Manuscript and ephemera materials are shelved in the Special Collections storage area, Row 3, Section 1. Books are shelved in the Special Collections reading room. A list of the books are in the library catalog.

    Language

    English, Some Foreign Translations

    Abstract

    The J. Todd Bailey Thomas Wolfe Collection contains over 662 monographs and five linear feet of manuscript and related ephemera materials. This comprehensive collection of books and materials was acquired by J. Todd Bailey over 30 years and represents a panoramic overview of the life and works of Asheville native Thomas Clayton Wolfe. The collection’s primary focus lies in the monographs about and written by Thomas Wolfe, as such preserving a literary heritage of the south that is almost unmatched. Several of the items are extremely rare and represent Bailey’s scholarship and passion as a “gentleman bookman.”

    Citation

    [Identification of Item], J. Todd Bailey Thomas Wolfe Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina Asheville

    Bibliography/Historical Information

    J. Todd Bailey

    J. Todd Bailey was born in Burnsville on May 14, 1958 to Garrett Dixon Bailey and Mary Bowman Bailey. A seventh generation lifelong resident of Yancey County, he is a third generation attorney, and is married to Rick Ramsey from Leicester.

    He received his B.A. from Davidson College in 1980 and a J.D. from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 1983. His practice began with his father and Bailey has continued to  practice for over forty years. In 1998 he received a Master of Liberal Arts degree from UNC Asheville with a thesis on Thomas Wolfe and F. Scott Fitzgerald. Bailey’s Wolfe collection began over thirty years ago, first with letter editions acquired during work on what became his MLAS thesis.

    Bailey is a past president of The Thomas Wolfe Society and continues to participate in that organization. He is an especial fan of Richard Powers and an avid bibliophile. A YouTube virtual tour of the 2016 exhibition of his Wolfe Collection can be found under Something Scavenging and Stinking.

    Thomas Wolfe

    Born October 3, 1900 in Asheville, Thomas Wolfe was the youngest of eight children to William Oliver Wolfe and Julia Elizabeth Westall. William was a successful stone carver and subsequently ran a gravestone business of which he used an angel in the window in order to attract customers. Julia purchased a boarding house at 48 Spruce Street in 1906, nicknamed “Old Kentucky Home” where Thomas Wolfe would live until he went to college in 1916 at age 15 at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

    Thomas Wolfe was an aspiring playwright, and a member of the Dialectic Society and Pi Kappa Phi at Chapel Hill, along with editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Tarheel. He wrote his first play entitled The Return of Buck Gavin in 1919 and won the Worth Prize for Philosophy for an essay titled “The Crisis in Industry.” Wolfe graduated from UNC in 1920 and went on to attend Harvard University where he would study playwriting and received his Master’s Degree in 1922. That same year, Wolfe’s Father passed away in June. By February 1924, Wolfe was living in New York and teaching English at New York University, a position he would occupy intermittently for seven years.

    Wolfe made his first transatlantic trip to Europe in October 1924 to focus on his writing. During his return voyage he met the heiress of a wealthy stockbroker. Aline Bernstein was twenty years Wolfe’s senior and had two children, but she and Wolfe began a turbulent affair that lasted decades. 

    By 1926, Wolfe had started the novel that was to become Look Homeward, Angel from fictionalized essays of his early life in Asheville, chronicling family, friends, and the boarders at his Mother’s establishment on Spruce Street. Wolfe dedicated the novel to Bernstein and it was published eleven days before the 1929 stock market crash. 

    Wolfe continued to write novels and travel throughout Europe, while basing mostly in Brooklyn and avoiding Asheville, where many of the thinly disguised characters from his novel were in an uproar over his writing. He did return to Asheville in 1937, after being banned from traveling in Germany over his book about Jewish discrimination he had witnessed, titled I Have a Thing to Tell You. In 1938 he departed for a tour of the Western United States, including eleven national parks. In July of that year he became ill with pneumonia while in Seattle and was subsequently diagnosed with miliary tuberculosis.

    On September 6 he was transferred to Baltimore’s John Hopkins Hospital for treatment by the famed neurosurgeon Walter Dandy, but the disease had overspread the entire right hemisphere of his brain. Wolfe did not regain consciousness and died 18 days before his 38th birthday.

    Wolfe saw less than half his work published in his lifetime, and he became the first American writer to leave two complete, unpublished novels with his publisher at death. One of the novels, You Can’t Go Home Again, became one of Wolfe’s works which launched him into consideration as one of the most important authors of the Southern Renaissance within the American literary canon, alongside the likes of William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Ernest Hemingway. Numerous plays and movies have been adapted from Wolfe’s works.

    The Thomas Wolfe Society was established in the late 1970s with a mission to release an annual publication of Wolfe-related materials, scholarly articles, and reviews. 

    The New York Times wrote the following regarding Wolfe: 

    “His was one of the most confident young voices in contemporary American literature, a vibrant, full-toned voice which it is hard to believe could be so suddenly stilled. The stamp of genius was upon him, though it was an undisciplined and unpredictable genius … There was within him an unspent energy, an untiring force, an unappeasable hunger for life and for expression which might have carried him to the heights and might equally have torn him down… The death last week of Thomas Clayton Wolfe shocked critics with the realization that, of all American novelists of his generation, he was the one from whom most had been expected.” 

    Wolfe is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Asheville, North Carolina with his parents and siblings.

    Scope and Contents

    The J. Todd Bailey Thomas Wolfe Collection contains over 662 monographs and over five linear feet of ephemera and related materials documenting the life and work of the author Thomas Wolfe.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Information

    UNC Asheville Special Collections and University Archives

    Ramsey Library, CPO #1500

    One University Heights

    Asheville, North Carolina, 28804-8504

    828.251.6645

    speccoll@unca.edu

    Access Note

    This collection is open for research.

    Custodial History

    Donated by J. Todd Bailey, 2023.

    Accruals Note

    Additional accruals are possible.

    Processing Information

    The manuscript and ephemera part of the collection were processed by Ashley McGhee Whittle and James Mimken during Spring and Fall 2024 and Spring 2025. The monographs and books on tape were cataloged by Vicki Fox and Susan Terry during Spring and Summer 2024.

    Related Materials

    Irwin Monk Papers, Margaret Shook Photograph Collection, Thomas Wolfe 75th Anniversary Collection

    Collection Inventory-

    Box 1: Excerpts and Manuscripts

    • Folder 1: “The Crisis in Industry” Manuscript
    • Folder 2: Two Printings of “What is Man?” Excerpt from “You Can’t Go Home Again”
    • Folder 3: Three “Confessio Amoris” Prints
    • Folder 4: “Return” Manuscript
    • Folder 5: “To Rupert Brook” Manuscript
    • Folder 6: The Proem to “O Lost”
    • Folder 7: Two Printings of “My Father’s Hands”
    • Folder 8: Two Printings of “The Whore”
    • Folder 9: An Annotated Chapter from “O Lost”
    • Folder 10: “The Web and the Rock” Excerpt
    • Folder 11: Spring 1960 Edition of Carolina Quarterly, which includes “A Biographical Statement” Manuscript
    • Folder 12: November 1937 edition of Redbook Magazine, which includes Novelette, “The Lost Boy”
    • Folder 13: December 1935 edition of The Bookbuyer, which includes “What a Writer Reads”
    • Folder 14: “Prologue to America” Manuscript
    • Folder 15: Two “What a Writer Reads” manuscripts
    • Folder 16: Script for radio dramatization of “Forever and the Earth” by Ray Bradbury. Features references to Thomas Wolfe
    • Folder 17: “The Good Child’s River” manuscript

    Box 2: Biographical Writings

    • Folder 1: “‘Julia and the Westalls Beyond’: The Maternal Ancestry of Thomas Clayton Wolfe”
    • Folder 2: “Dossier on Thomas Wolfe and an Early Admirer”
    • Folder 3: “From Bootblack to Wolfe Scholar: The Literary Journey of Aldo P. Magi”
    • Folder 4:
      “John L. Idol, Jr., on Thomas Wolfe: A Bibliographical Record, 1969-1993”
    • Folder 5: “Thomas Wolfe: A Chronology and Some Biographical Sources”
    • Folder 6: “Stoney & Wolfe: A Brief Encounter”
    • Folder 7: “Wolfe Fests & Anniversaries”
    • Folder 8: A Trip through Vermont with Thomas Wolfe: Some Final Thoughts and Reflections”
    • Folder 9: “Saving Dixieland”
    • Folder 10: Three Copies of “48 Spruce Street: A Room with a View”
    • Folder 11: “Memories of Thomas Wolfe: A Pictorial Companion to Look Homeward, Angel”
    • Folder 12: Narration of Testimony of Thomas Wolfe in State v. Phillip Ray and Otis Chase
    • Folder 13: “Thomas Wolfe of North Carolina”
    • Folder 14: “Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 9, Part 3 – American Novelists, 1910-1945”
    • Folder 15: The Southern Packet April 1948, containing “Thomas Wolfe and ‘Altamont’”
    • Folder 16: “Thomas Wolfe’s ‘Dixieland’”
    • Folder 17: “Thomas Wolfe: A Biography in Sound”
    • Folder 18: Fall 1965 edition of The Carolina Quarterly, containing “Thomas Wolfe: A Biography in Sound”
    • Folder 19: “Thomas Wolfe’s Pennsylvania”
    • Folder 20: “Thomas Wolfe and Hollywood”
    • Folder 21: “Thomas Wolfe: The Discovery of a Genius”
    • Folder 22: “Thomas Wolfe” by Ladell Payne
    • Folder 23: “Thomas Wolfe: Carolina Student”
    • Folder 24: “Thomas Wolfe’s Composition Books” The North State Fitting School 1912-1915”
    • Folder 25: December 1956 edition of Writer’s Digest

    Box 3: Biographical Writings (Galley Proofs)

    • Folder 1: “Thomas Wolfe and his Family” Galley Proof
    • Folder 2: “Thomas Wolfe: A Biography” Galley Proof

    Box 4: Essays, Reviews, and Criticism

    • Folder 1: Two copies of “Index of Papers Appearing in The Thomas Wolfe Newsletter & The Thomas Wolfe Review 1977-2010”
    • Folder 2: “In the Shadows of a Shade”
    • Folder 3: Two copies of “Thomas Wolfe and the Great War”
    • Folder 4: “How I Got Hooked on Thomas Wolfe”
    • Folder 5: February 1968 edition of Saturday Review, containing “The Volcanic Mr. Wolfe”
    • Folder 6: Winter 1996 edition of Scribner Magazine, containing “Crying Wolfe”
    • Folder 7: “The Strange Case of Thomas Wolfe”
    • Folder 8: October 1949 edition of North Carolina Writers, containing “Thomas Wolfe, Major Novelist”
    • Folder 9: “Louis D. Rubin, Jr. on Thomas Wolfe”
    • Folder 10: “The Influence of the English Romantic Poets on the Philosophical Themes of Look Homeward, Angel”
    • Folder 11: “The Theme of Loneliness in Thomas Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel”

    Box 5: Collection Indexes and Lists

    • Folder 1: Two copies of “Thomas Wolfe Collection: An Exhibition of Books” by Duane Schneider
    • Folder 2: “Thomas Wolfe: Some Bibliographical Sources”
    • Folder 3: “Aldo P. Magi: A Checklist of His Publications on Thomas Wolfe”
    • Folder 4: “Checklist of Thomas Wolfe” Compiled by Paschal Reeves
    • Folder 5: “The Braden-Hatchett Thomas Wolfe Collection”
    • Folder 6: “Resources for American Literary Study”

    Box 6: Playbills and Playbooks

    • Folder 1: Two copies of “Look Homeward, Angel” playbills
    • Folder 2: “Twentieth Anniversary of the Carolina Playmakers: The Carolina Playbook”
    • Folder 3: “Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Carolina Playmakers: The Carolina Playbook”

    Box 7: Pamphlets and Keepsakes

    • Folder 1: Five copies of “48 Spruce Street”
    • Folder 2: “The Promise of America” pamphlet
    • Folder 3: “92 Woodfin Street” pamphlet
    • Folder 4: Printed letter from Thomas Wolfe to William Weber
    • Folder 5: “The Ballad of Tall Tom” pamphlet
    • Folder 6: Two copies of “The Look Homeward, Angel Portfolio of Letterio Calapai”
    • Folder 7: “Time… Thomas Wolfe” pamphlet
    • Folder 8: “Look Homeward, Angel” bookmark
    • Folder 9: “Within the Secret Borders: Thomas Wolfe’s Virginia” pamphlet
    • Folder 10: “Thomas Wolfe’s Discovery of America” pamphlet
    • Folder 11: “Thomas Wolfe – In Memoriam” pamphlet
    • Folder 12: “Before his Time” news article print
    • Folder 13: “Profile pen and ink drawing of Thomas Wolfe” by J. Chestner” print
    • Folder 14: “Thomas Wolfe 1900-1938” by J. Chestner” print
    • Folder 15: “Thomas Wolfe” by Michele Chessare print
    • Folder 16: “North Carolina Keepsakes, No. 2-5”
    • Folder 17: “Louis D. Rubin Jr. on Thomas Wolfe” pamphlet
    • Folder 18: “An Unofficial Supplement to Beyond Love and Loyalty: The Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Elizabeth Nowell” pamphlet
    • Folder 19: Aldo P. Magi business card with note to J. Todd Bailey, wrapped in “Drink.”
    • Folder 20: Thomas Wolfe autograph with auction information
    • Folder 21: Auction information for Wolfe collection

    Box 8: Paraphernalia and Miscellany

    • Folder 1: American Authors Card Game
    • Folder 2: American Authors Knowledge Cards
    • Folder 3: “Largely Literary” Thomas Wolfe t-shirt
    • Folder 4: Cassette Tapes

    Box 9: Oversized Materials

    • Folder 1: 1952 editions of Life Magazine, featuring a review of the stage adaptation of “Look Homeward, Angel
    • Folder 2: Vinyl record featuring selections from musical “Angel”
    • Folder 3: Page prints of Wolfe’s letters