The Party at Jack's

A Novella

Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book The Party at Jack's by Thomas Wolfe, The University of North Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Thomas Wolfe ISBN: 9781469611228
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press Publication: June 1, 2013
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Thomas Wolfe
ISBN: 9781469611228
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Publication: June 1, 2013
Imprint: The University of North Carolina Press
Language: English

In the summer of 1937, Thomas Wolfe was in the North Carolina mountains revising a piece about a party and subsequent fire at the Park Avenue penthouse apartment of the fictional Esther and Frederick Jack. He wrote to his agent, Elizabeth Nowell, 'I think it is now a single thing, as much a single thing as anything I've ever written.' Abridged and edited versions of the story were published twice, as a novella in Scribner's Monthly (May 1939) and as part of You Can't Go Home Again (1940). Now Suzanne Stutman and John Idol have worked from manuscript sources at Harvard University to reconstruct The Party at Jack's as outlined by Wolfe before his death. Here, in its untruncated state, Wolfe's novella affords a significant glimpse of a Depression-era New York inhabited by Wall Street wheelers and dealers and the theatrical and artistic elite. Wolfe describes the Jacks and their social circle with lavish attention to mannerisms and to clothing, furnishings, and other trappings of wealth and privilege. The sharply drawn contrast between the decadence of the party-goers and the struggles of the working classes in the streets below reveals Wolfe's gifts as both a writer and a sharp social critic.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

In the summer of 1937, Thomas Wolfe was in the North Carolina mountains revising a piece about a party and subsequent fire at the Park Avenue penthouse apartment of the fictional Esther and Frederick Jack. He wrote to his agent, Elizabeth Nowell, 'I think it is now a single thing, as much a single thing as anything I've ever written.' Abridged and edited versions of the story were published twice, as a novella in Scribner's Monthly (May 1939) and as part of You Can't Go Home Again (1940). Now Suzanne Stutman and John Idol have worked from manuscript sources at Harvard University to reconstruct The Party at Jack's as outlined by Wolfe before his death. Here, in its untruncated state, Wolfe's novella affords a significant glimpse of a Depression-era New York inhabited by Wall Street wheelers and dealers and the theatrical and artistic elite. Wolfe describes the Jacks and their social circle with lavish attention to mannerisms and to clothing, furnishings, and other trappings of wealth and privilege. The sharply drawn contrast between the decadence of the party-goers and the struggles of the working classes in the streets below reveals Wolfe's gifts as both a writer and a sharp social critic.

More books from The University of North Carolina Press

Cover of the book Freedom Farmers by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Nazi Empire-Building and the Holocaust in Ukraine by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Pages from the Past by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Gender and the Mexican Revolution by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Southscapes by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Jimmy Carter's Economy by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Nation Into State by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Made From This Earth by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Unprotected Labor by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book The Origins of the Southern Middle Class, 1800-1861 by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Internal Improvement by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book The Weight of Their Votes by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book That Infernal Little Cuban Republic by Thomas Wolfe
Cover of the book Roots of Secession by Thomas Wolfe
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy