The Starwick Episodes

by Thomas Wolfe

Richard Kennedy (English, Temple U.), a biographer of Thomas Wolfe, discovered these unpublished sections of Wolfe's second autobiographical novel, Of Time and the River , at Harvard University's Houghton Library. The episodes, deleted by Wolfe's editor at Scribner's, flesh out the relationship between the main character, Eugene Gant, and his college friend, Francis Starwick, and include a scene in which Gant and Starwick visit a Parisian brothel. Also included are details of the life of Kenneth Raisbeck, the man Wolfe based the character of Starwick upon. Paper edition (1975-X), $11.95. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Hardcover

First published August 1, 1994

About the author

People best know American writer Thomas Clayton Wolfe for his autobiographical novels, including Look Homeward, Angel (1929) and the posthumously published You Can't Go Home Again (1940).

Wolfe wrote four lengthy novels and many short stories, dramatic works and novellas. He mixed highly original, poetic, rhapsodic, and impressionistic prose with autobiographical writing. Wolfe wrote and published books that vividly reflect on American culture and the mores, filtered through his sensitive, sophisticated and hyper-analytical perspective. People widely knew him during his own lifetime.

Wolfe inspired the works of many other authors, including Betty Smith with A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Robert Morgan with Gap Creek; Pat Conroy, author of Prince of Tides, said, "My writing career began the instant I finished Look Homeward, Angel." Jack Kerouac idolized Wolfe. Wolfe influenced Ray Bradbury, who included Wolfe as a character in his books.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Adam Bregman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2000, O Lost is Thomas Wolfe's original manuscript, which would become his debut novel, Look Homeward Angel, released to great acclaim in 1929. Renowned editor, Maxwell Perkins, edited away some of that book's soul, and though Look Homeward Angel, is a classic, Wolfe's original vision is something else, a darker and deeper work. This isn't the case with The Starwick Episodes, several sections that did not make it into Wolfe's second novel, Of Time and the River. The story of Wolfe's inspiration for the Starwick character, a friend named Kenneth Raisbeck, is a tale worth telling and the first few episodes are Wolfe writing like few others could, but once the characters get to Paris, you will find yourself siding with Perkins in his editing choices. Wolfe at times goes off the deep end and the lengthy attacks on the Starwick character are exactly the sort of self-centered rants that should have been cut from a 900-page book. Still, Wolfe zealots will enjoy this, as I did.

[Pj Mensel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good except 90 per cent is in published works. His editor thought some other passages too racy for publication. Del with Starwicks homosexuality. Really a nothing burger