Publications of Thomas Wolfe

Compiled by David Strange

“Publications of Thomas Wolfe” is divided into two sections: 1) Separate Publications; and 2) First-Appearance Contributions to Books, Magazines, and Newspapers. Collections of Wolfe letters were included (for example, Elizabeth Nowell’s The Letters of Thomas Wolfe), but not letters published individually (or in small collections) within other books or magazines (for example, Wolfe’s last letter to Max Perkins was first published about 13 years before the Nowell edition of Letters; and some of his correspondence with Margaret Roberts was published in the Atlantic Monthly 60 years before Ted Mitchell published Windows of the Heart). Sources for readers who want to find these letters are provided at the end of this page.

For ease of use, this list is also available to download in .pdf format.

Separate Publications

The Crisis in Industry, University of North Carolina, 1919.

Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life, Scribner’s, 1929.

NOTE: Among numerous later editions (including a condensed version for the armed services in 1944) is Look Homeward, Angel: The Adventures of Young Gant (Signet/New American Library, 1948), which contains most of part 2 (chapters 14–26).

Of Time and the River: A Legend of Man’s Hunger in His Youth, Scribner’s, 1935.

NOTE: Among numerous later editions (including a condensed version for the armed services in 1944 or 1945) is Of Time and the River: Young Faustus and Telemachus (Scribner’s, 1965), which contains books 2 and 3 (chapters 7–45).

From Death to Morning, Scribner’s, 1935.

NOTE: A volume containing seven of the fourteen stories in this collection, along with “The Story of a Novel,” was published as Thomas Wolfe Short Stories (Penguin, 1947). The third printing of that volume is titled Only the Dead Know Brooklyn (Signet/New American Library, 1952).

The Story of a Novel, Scribner’s, 1936.

A Note on Experts: Dexter Vespasian Joyner, House of Books, 1939.

The Web and the Rock, Harper, 1939.

NOTE: Among numerous later editions is The Web and the Root (Harper Perennial/Harper Collins, 2009), which contains books 1–3 (chapters 1–16).

The Face of a Nation: Poetical Passages from the Writings of Thomas Wolfe, Scribner’s, 1939.

You Can’t Go Home Again, Harper, 1940.

The Hills Beyond, Harper, 1941.

NOTE: Among numerous later editions are volumes containing various combinations of material from this collection. In addition to those that retain the original title, The Hills Beyond, are volumes titled Stories by Thomas Wolfe / Thomas Wolfe: Selected Great Stories (Avon/Modern Short Story Monthly 17, 1944) and The Lost Boy (Perennial Library/Harper, 1965).

America, privately printed, January 1942.

What Is Man?, privately printed, January 1942.

America: From Of Time and the River privately printed, April 1942.

Gentlemen of the Press, William Targ/Black Archer Press, 1942.

Thomas Wolfe’s Letters to His Mother: Julia Elizabeth Wolfe, Scribner’s, 1943.

A Stone, a Leaf, a Door: Poems by Thomas Wolfe, Scribner’s, 1945.

NOTE: Wolfe passages selected and arranged in verse by John S. Barnes.

The Portable Thomas Wolfe, Viking, 1946.

NOTE: This collection was also reprinted as The Indispensable Thomas Wolfe (Book Society, 1950).

God’s Lonely Man, privately printed, 1947.

Mannerhouse: A Play in a Prologue and Three Acts, Harper, 1948.

To Rupert Brooke, privately printed, 1948.

. . . “The Years of Wandering in Many Lands and Cities,” Charles S. Boesen, 1949.

A Western Journal, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1951.

The Correspondence of Thomas Wolfe and Homer Andrew Watt, New York University Press, 1954.

The Letters of Thomas Wolfe, Scribner’s, 1956.

The Short Novels of Thomas Wolfe, Scribner’s, 1961.

The Thomas Wolfe Reader, Scribner’s, 1962.

Thomas Wolfe’s Purdue Speech: “Writing and Living,” Purdue University Studies, 1964.

The Letters of Thomas Wolfe to His Mother, University of North Carolina Press, 1968.

NOTE: This is a revised and corrected version of the 1943 volume.

The Mountains: A Play in One Act / The Mountains: A Drama in Three Acts and a Prologue, University of North Carolina Press, 1970.

The Notebooks of Thomas Wolfe, University of North Carolina Press, 1970.

Return, Thomas Wolfe Memorial, 1976.

The Promise of America, privately printed, 1977.

A Prologue to America, Croissant, 1978.

Time . . . Thomas Wolfe, privately printed, 1978.

Confessio Amoris, privately printed, 1979.

London Tower, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1980.

The Proem to “O Lost,” Thomas Wolfe Society, 1980.

Thomas Wolfe’s Discovery of America, Thomas Wolfe Memorial, 1980.

The Streets of Durham, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1982.

The Autobiography of an American Novelist, Harvard University Press, 1983.

NOTE: Complete versions of “The Story of a Novel” and “Writing and Living.”

Beyond Love and Loyalty: The Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Elizabeth Nowell, University of North Carolina Press, 1983.

K-19: Salvaged Pieces, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1983.

My Other Loneliness: Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Aline Bernstein, University of North Carolina Press, 1983.

Welcome to Our City: A Play in Ten Scenes, Louisiana State University Press, 1983.

The Train and the City, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1984.

Holding on for Heaven: The Cables and Postcards of Thomas Wolfe and Aline Bernstein, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1985.

Mannerhouse: A Play in a Prologue and Four Acts, Louisiana State University Press, 1985.

The Hound of Darkness, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1986.

The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe, Scribner’s, 1987.

North Caroliniana Society Keepsakes, No. 2, North Caroliniana Society, 1987.

NOTE: Wolfe’s 24 November 1929 letter to Beverly Moore.

Thomas Wolfe–In Memoriam: 1900–1938, privately printed, 1988.

NOTE: Wolfe’s “Credo” from You Can’t Go Home Again.

The Starwick Episodes, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1989.

Thomas Wolfe’s Composition Books: The North State Fitting School 1912–1915, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1990.

The Autobiographical Outline for Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1991.

The Good Child’s River, University of North Carolina Press, 1991.

Dossier on Thomas Wolfe and an Early Admirer, privately printed, 1992.

NOTE: Includes Wolfe’s 9 and 14 August 1937 letters to Andy Logan.

The Lost Boy, University of North Carolina Press, 1992.

North Caroliniana Society Keepsakes, No. 3, North Caroliniana Society, 1992.

NOTE: Wolfe’s 3 October 1929 letter to George W. McCoy.

Thomas Wolfe’s Notes on Macbeth, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1992.

Thomas Wolfe on the Portrait of Ben Jonson, privately printed, 1993.

[George Webber, Writer]: An Introduction by a Friend, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1994.

North Caroliniana Society Keepsakes, No. 5, North Caroliniana Society, 1994.

NOTE: Wolfe’s 16 April 1935 letter to William Weber.

The Party at Jack’s, University of North Carolina Press, 1995.

Antaeus, or A Memory of Earth, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1996.

Passage to England: A Selection, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1998.

The Medical Students, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2000.

O Lost: A Story of the Buried Life, University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

To Loot My Life Clean: The Thomas Wolfe–Maxwell Perkins Correspondence, University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

What a Writer Reads, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2002.

Thomas Wolfe’s Friendship with Henry Volkening: The Documents, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2005.

My Father’s Hands, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2006.

The Death of Gant, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2007.

Windows of the Heart: The Correspondence of Thomas Wolfe and Margaret Roberts, University of South Carolina Press, 2007.

The Whore, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2009.

A Real and Lasting Affection: The Wolfe–Raynolds Correspondence, Thomas Wolfe Society, 2011. [forthcoming]

First-Appearance Contributions to Books, Magazines, and Newspapers

“A Field in Flanders,” University of North Carolina Magazine, December 1917.

“To France,” University of North Carolina Magazine, December 1917.

“The Challenge,” University of North Carolina Magazine, March 1918.

“A Cullenden of Virginia,” University of North Carolina Magazine, March 1918.

“To Rupert Brooke,” University of North Carolina Magazine, May 1918.

“The Drammer,” Magazine [UNC], April 1919.

“An Appreciation,” Magazine [UNC], May 1919.

Deferred Payment, Magazine [UNC], June 1919.

“Russian Folk Song,” Magazine [UNC], June 1919.

“The Creative Movement in Writing,” Tar Heel, 14 June 1919.

The Streets of Durham, or Dirty Work at the Cross Roads, Tar Baby, 18 November 1919.

Concerning Honest Bob, Magazine [UNC], May 1920.

The Return of Buck Gavin: The Tragedy of a Mountain Outlaw, Carolina Folk-Plays, Henry Holt, 1924.

“London Tower,” Asheville Citizen, 19 July 1925.

NOTE: The headline above the newspaper’s brief introduction to this article reads “In Devising Torture Cruelties Nordic Race Has Demonstrated The Superiority It Boasts Of.”

“An Angel on the Porch,” Scribner’s Magazine, August 1929.

“A Poetic Odyssey of the Korea That Was Crushed,” New York Evening Post, 4 April 1931.

NOTE: The newspaper’s subtitles for this article (the only published book review by Wolfe) are “Younghill Kang Distills Riches of Experience” and “‘The Grass Roof’ a Full Record of Places and People.”

“A Portrait of Bascom Hawke,” Scribner’s Magazine, April 1932.

“The Web of Earth,” Scribner’s Magazine, July 1932.

“The Train and the City,” Scribner’s Magazine, May 1933.

“Death the Proud Brother,” Scribner’s Magazine, June 1933.

“No Door: A Story of Time and the Wanderer,” Scribner’s Magazine, July 1933.

“The Four Lost Men,” Scribner’s Magazine, February 1934.

“Boom Town,” American Mercury, May 1934.

“The Sun and the Rain,” Scribner’s Magazine, May 1934.

“The House of the Far and Lost,” Scribner’s Magazine, August 1934.

“Dark in the Forest, Strange as Time,” Scribner’s Magazine, November 1934.

“The Names of the Nation,” Modern Monthly, December 1934.

“For Professional Appearance,” Modern Monthly, January 1935.

“One of the Girls in Our Party,” Scribner’s Magazine, January 1935.

“Circus at Dawn,” Modern Monthly, March 1935.

“His Father’s Earth,” Modern Monthly, April 1935.

“Old Catawba,” Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1935.

“Arnold Pentland,” Esquire, June 1935.

“The Face of the War,” Modern Monthly, June 1935.

“Gulliver: The Story of a Tall Man,” Scribner’s Magazine, June 1935.

“In the Park,” Harper’s Bazaar, June 1935.

“Only the Dead Know Brooklyn,” New Yorker, 15 June 1935.

“Polyphemus,” North American Review, June 1935.

“Cottage by the Tracks,” Cosmopolitan, July 1935.

“The Bums at Sunset,” Vanity Fair, October 1935.

“The Story of a Novel,” Saturday Review of Literature, 14, 21, 28 December 1935.

“Thomas Wolfe on ‘What a Writer Reads,'” Book Buyer, December 1935.

“The Bell Remembered,” American Mercury, August 1936.

“Fame and the Poet,” American Mercury, October 1936.

Untitled, Portraits and Self-Portraits, Houghton Mifflin, 1936.

NOTE: This is an excerpt of Wolfe’s autobiographical sketch written for the Georges Schrieber book. For the complete original sketch see “Something of My Life.”

“I Have a Thing to Tell You (Nun Will Ich Ihnen Was Sagen),” New Republic, 10, 17, 24 March 1937.

“Return,” Asheville Citizen-Times, 16 May 1937.

NOTE: The newspaper’s introductory headline for Wolfe’s essay was “Thomas Wolfe Describes His Feelings at Being Home Again.”

“Mr. Malone,” New Yorker, 29 May 1937.

“Oktoberfest,” Scribner’s Magazine, June 1937.

“‘E, A Recollection,” New Yorker, 17 July 1937.

“April, Late April,” American Mercury, September 1937.

“The Child by Tiger,” Saturday Evening Post, 11 September 1937.

“Katamoto,” Harper’s Bazaar, October 1937.

“The Lost Boy,” Redbook, November 1937.

“Chickamauga,” Yale Review, Winter 1938.

“The Company,” New Masses, January 11, 1938.

“A Prologue to America,” Vogue, February 1, 1938.

“Franco Prepares for Tourists” [letter to the editor], Nation, 21 May 1938.

The Third Night: A Play of the Carolina Mountains, Carolina Play-Book, 11 September 1938.

“Portrait of a Literary Critic: A Satire,” American Mercury, April 1939.

“The Party at Jack’s,” Scribner’s Magazine, May 1939.

“Three O’Clock,” North American Review, Summer 1939.

“A Western Journey,” Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 1939.

“The Birthday,” Harper’s Magazine, June 1939.

“The Golden City,” Harper’s Bazaar, June 1939.

“The Winter of Our Discontent,” Atlantic Monthly, June 1939.

“Enchanted City,” Reader’s Digest, October 1939.

“Dark Messiah,” Current History and Forum, August 1940.

“The Hollyhock Sowers,” American Mercury, August 1940.

“Nebraska Crane,” Harper’s Magazine, August 1940.

“So This Is Man,” Town and Country, August 1940.

“Miss Edith’s Dress,” Mademoiselle, September 1940.

“The Promise of America,” Coronet, September 1940.

“The Hollow Men,” Esquire, October 1940.

“The Anatomy of Loneliness,” American Mercury, October 1941.

“The Lion at Morning,” Harper’s Bazaar, October 1941.

“The Plumed Knight,” Town and Country, October 1941.

“The Man Who Lives with His Idea: Which Tells the Story of Frederick H. Koch and the Playmakers of Carolina,” Carolina Play-Book, March–June 1943.

“La Marquise de Mornaye,” Encore May 1944.

“Old Man Rivers,” Atlantic Monthly, December 1947.

“Something of My Life,” Saturday Review of Literature, 7 February 1948.

NOTE: This is the complete original autobiographical sketch that Wolfe wrote for Georges Schreiber’s Portraits and Self-Portraits (1936).

Justice Is Blind, The Enigma of Thomas Wolfe, Harvard University Press, 1953.

Welcome to Our City, Esquire, October 1957.

“The Isle of Quisay,” Comparative Literature Winter 1957.

“A Previously Unpublished Statement by Thomas Wolfe: A Biographical Statement,” Carolina Quarterly, Spring 1960.

“No More Rivers,” Beyond Love and Loyalty: The Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Elizabeth Nowell, University of North Carolina Press, 1983.

“Last Poem,” within “Crying Wolfe” by Charles Scribner III, Vanity Fair, October 1983.

“Shakespeare: The Man,” Thomas Wolfe Review, Fall 1998.

“The Mountaineers Learning Marksmanship,” Appalachian Heritage, Fall 2007.

“The Haunted Grove,” Appalachian Heritage, Fall 2007.

“A Recollection,” Appalachian Heritage, Fall 2007.

Sources: Aldo P. Magi, “Thomas Wolfe: A Publishing Chronology,” Thomas Wolfe Review, Fall 1983; Carol Johnston, Thomas Wolfe: A Descriptive Bibliography, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1987; Ted Mitchell, Thomas Wolfe: A Writer’s Life, Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site, 1997; Matthew J. Bruccoli and Aldo P. Magi (editors), The Magical Campus: University of North Carolina Writings 1917–1920, University of South Carolina Press, 2008; and various editions of the Thomas Wolfe Review.

For information on unsigned items presumed to be by Wolfe, see Johnston; and Magi and Bruccoli.

For more information on published Wolfe letters, see Johnston; and David J. Wyatt, “The Published Letters of Thomas Wolfe: A Selected Chronological Bibliography,” Thomas Wolfe Review, 2004.

For information on published interviews of Wolfe, see Aldo P. Magi and Richard Walser (editors), Thomas Wolfe Interviewed 1929–1938, Louisiana State University Press, 1985; and Johnston.