Photo by Carl Van Vechten
Thomas Wolfe, now celebrated by Asheville as its most famous native son, was not always so welcome at home. His widely acclaimed novels, beginning with Look Homeward, Angel in 1928, depicted his family members and the neighbors he had grown up with living in his mother’s boardinghouse, The Old Kentucky Home. Many who recognized themselves in his fictional characters were so upset at his portrayal of them that they turned against him. Wolfe described the pain of his rejection in another novel, You Can’t Go Home Again. Only after his death in 1938 did his fellow townspeople give him the acclaim that the outside world had offered from the very start. Today, Wolfe’s childhood boardinghouse home in Asheville is a major tourist attraction.
Digital Heritage Moments are produced at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. To learn more, visit digitalheritage.org.
