NPR

Tom Wolfe, Best-Selling Author And Genre-Breaking Journalist, Dies At 87

The author of Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff used to give himself a quota of 10 triple-spaced pages per day. He also experimented with literary techniques in his non-fiction.
Novelist and journalist Tom Wolfe believed that techniques for fiction and non-fiction should be interchangeable. "The things that work in non-fiction would work in fiction, and vice-versa," he said.

In a career that spanned more than half a century, Tom Wolfe wrote fiction and non-fiction bestsellers including The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test and Bonfire of the Vanities. Along the way, he created a new type of journalism and coined phrases that became part of the American lexicon. Wolfe died Monday in Manhattan. He was 87.

Wolfe didn't start a novel with a character or a plot, but rather, with an idea. In 1987, wearing

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR5 min readCrime & Violence
Climate Activist Who Defaced Edgar Degas Sculpture Exhibit Sentenced
A federal judge sentenced Joanna Smith to 60 days in prison for smearing paint on the case surrounding Edgar Degas' Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen at the National Gallery of Art.
NPR2 min read
Biden Administration Abandons Plan To Ban Menthol Cigarettes, Citing 'Feedback'
An anti-smoking advocate says the decision to leave menthol cigarettes on the market "prioritizes politics over lives, especially Black lives."
NPR2 min readWorld
A Baby Girl Born Orphaned And Premature After An Israeli Airstrike In Gaza Has Died
The newborn died after five days in an incubator. Her family was killed in an air strike. UNICEF says 13,000 children have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, with thousands more orphaned and wounded.

Related Books & Audiobooks