Thomas Wolfe: A Publishing Chronology

Compiled by: Aldo P. Magi
(NOTE: Not a conventional bibliography, the following is a listing of Thomas Wolfe’s work showing the time and place of publication. The original chronology first appeared in The Thomas Wolfe Review 7.2 (1983), with entries starting in 1917 to 1970. A website update was tendered several years later, listing entries from 1970 to 1996. The present updated and revamped chronology [2011] will include overlooked material [denoted by *] and revised entries [denoted by **] in the original and first updated chronology.

1917
— “A Field in Flanders,” (poem). The University of North Carolina Magazine, December 1917.
— “To France,” (poem). The University of North Carolina Magazine, December 1917.
1918
— “The Challenge,” (poem). The University of North Carolina Magazine, March 1918.
— “A Cullenden of Virginia,” (short story). The University of North Carolina Magazine, March 1918.
— “To Rupert Brooke,” (poem). The University of North Carolina Magazine, May 1918.
1919
— The Crisis in Industry, (essay), Worth Prize Winner,  Department of Philosophy, University of North Carolina. Pamphlet, 14 pp., 200 copies, 1919.
— “The Drammer,” (poem). The Magazine, April 1919.
— “An Appreciation,” (poem). The Magazine, May 1919.
— “Deferred Payment,” (short play). The Magazine, June 1919.
— “The Creative Movement in Writing,” (editorial). The Tar Heel, June 14, 1919.
— “The Streets of Durham, or Dirty Work at the Cross Roads (A Tragedy in Three Muddy Acts By Tommy Wolfe),” (short play). Carolina Tar Baby, The University of North Carolina, October 25, 1919.
— “Ye Who Have Been There Only Know,” (essay) The Tar Heel, The University of North Carolina, December 13, 1919.
1920
— “Russian Folk Song,” (poem). The Magazine, May 1920.
— “Concerning Honest Bob,” (short play). The Magazine, May 1920.
— From October 11, 1919, to June 5, 1920, Thomas Wolfe served as Editor-in-Chief of The Tar Heel, and many issues of this paper contained unsigned editorials by him.
1924
— The Return of Buck Gavin, (short play). Carolina Folk Plays, 2nd Series. Edited by Frederick H. Koch. Henry Holt and Company, 1924.
1925
— “London Tower,” (article). The Sunday Citizen, Asheville, NC, July 19, 1925.
1929 — Wolfe’s most famous novel, Look Homeward, Angel is published
— “An Angel on the Porch,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, August 1929.
— Look Homeward, Angel, (novel). Charles Scribner’s Sons, October 18, 1929.
1931
— “A Poetic Odyssey of the Korlo That Was Crushed,” (a review of Younghill Kang’s The Glass Roof). The New York Evening Post, April 4, 1931.**
1932
— “A Portrait of Bascom Hawke,” (novella). Scribner’s Magazine, April 1932.
— “The Web of Earth,” (novella). Scribner’s Magazine, July 1932.
1933
— “No Door: A Story of Time and the Wanderer,” (novella). Scribner’s Magazine, July 1933.
1934
— “The Four Lost Men,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, February 1934.
— “The Sun and the Rain,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, May 1934.
— “Boom Town,” (short story). The American Mercury, May 1934.
— “The House of the Far and Lost,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, August 1934.
— “Dark in the Forest, Strange as Time,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, November 1934.
— “The Names of the Nation,” (short story). Modern Monthly, December 1934.
1935 — Wolfe’s second novel, Of Time and the River, is published
— “For Professional Appearance,” (short story). Modern Monthly, January 1935.
— “One of the Girls in Our Party,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, January 1935.
— Of Time and the River, (novel). Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935.
— “Circus at Dawn,” (short story). Modern Monthly, March 1935.
— “His Father’s Earth,” (short story). Modern Monthly, April 1935.
— “Old Catawba,” (short story). The Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1935.
— “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn,” (short story). The New Yorker, June 15, 1935.
— “Polyphemus,” (short story). The North American Review, June 1935.
— “In the Park,” (short story). Harper’s Bazaar, June 1935.
— “The Face of War,” (short story). Modern Monthly, June 1935.
— “Gulliver: The Story of a Tall Man,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, June 1935.
— “Arnold Pentland,” (short story). Esquire, June 1935.
— “Cottage by the Tracks,” (short story). Cosmopolitan, July 1935.
— “The Bums at Sunset,” (short story). Vanity Fair, October 1935.
— “What a Writer Reads,” (short story). The Book Buyer, 1:8 (December 1935). (Reprint. Edited, with an introduction, by Alice R. Cotten and Robert G. Anthony, Jr., Thomas Wolfe Society, 2002.)*
— From Death to Morning, (collection of short stories). Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935.
— “The Story of a Novel,” (essay). The Saturday Review of Literature. December 14, 21, 28, 1935. (An expanded version of this essay was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, April 21, 1936).
1936
— “Thomas Wolfe Talks About His Contemporaries and Predicts a Bright Future for Our Writers,” (interview). May Caneron. New York Post, March 14, 1936. (An interview with the author reputed to be largely written by Wolfe.)*
— “The Bell Remembered,” (short story). The American Mercury, August 1936.
— “Fame and the Poet,” (short story). The American Mercury, October 1936.
1937
— “I Have a Thing to Tell You,” (novella). The New Republic, March 10, 17 & 24, 1937.
— “Return,” (short story). The Asheville Citizen-Times, May 16, 1937. (Reprinted as a pamphlet by the Thomas Wolfe Memorial. Edited by Myra Champion, published in 1976.)**
— “Mr. Malone,” (short story). The New Yorker, May 29, 1937.
— “Oktoberfest,” (short story). Scribner’s Magazine, June 1937.
— ” ‘E: A Recollection,” (short story). The New Yorker, July 17, 1937.
— “The Child by Tiger,” (short story). The Saturday Evening Post, September 11, 1937.
— “April, Late April,” (short story). The American Mercury, September 1937.
— “Katamoto,” (short story). Harper’s Bazaar, October 1937.
— “The Lost Boy,” (short story). Redbook Magazine, November 1937.
1938 — Thomas Wolfe dies of brain tuberculosis
— “Chickamauga,” (short story). The Yale Review, Winter 1938.
— “The Company,” (short story). The New Masses, January 11, 1938.
— “A Prologue to America,” (short story). Vogue, February 1, 1938.
— The Third Night: A Play of the Carolina Mountains, (play). The Carolina Play Book, September 11, 1938.
— “Franco Prepares for Tourists,” (letter to editor). Nation, May 21, 1934.
==Thomas Wolfe died at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland on September 15, 1938.==
1939 — A third novel, The Web and the Rock, is published posthumously
— “Portrait of a Literary Critic,” (short story). The American Mercury, April 1939.
— “The Party at Jack’s,” (novella). Scribner’s Magazine, May 1939.**
— “Three O’Clock,” (short story). The North American Review, Summer 1939.
— “The Winter of Our Discontent,” (short story). The Atlantic Monthly, June 1939.
— “The Golden City,” (short story). Harper’s Bazaar, June 1939.
— “The Birthday,” (short story). Harper’s Magazine, June 1939.
— “A Note on Experts: Dexter Vespasian Joyner,” (short story). House of Books, Ltd., June 10, 1939.
— The Web and the Rock, (novel). Harper & Brothers, 1939.
— “Enchanted City,” (short story). Reader’s Digest, October 1939.
— The Face of a Nation: Poetical Passages from the Writings of Thomas Wolfe. With an introduction by John Hall Wheelock. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939.*
1940 — A fourth novel, You Can’t Go Home Again, is published posthumously
— “The Dark Messiah,” (short story). Current History and Forum, August 1940.
— “The Hollyhock Sowers,” (short story). The American Mercury, August 1940.
— “Nebraska Crane,” (short story). Harper’s Magazine, August 1940.
— “So This Is Man,” (short story). Town and Country, August 1940.
— “The Promise of America,” (lyrical essay). Coronet, September 1940.
— “Miss Edith’s Dress,” (short story). Mademoiselle, September 1940.*
— You Can’t Go Home Again, (novel). Harper & Brothers, 1940.
— “The Hollow Men,” (short story). Esquire, October 1940.
1941
— The Hills Beyond, (twenty stories, the first ten previously published in various periodicals, the last ten from the projected The Hills Beyond, from which this volume takes its name). With a note by Edward C. Aswell. Harper & Brothers, October 15, 1941.**
— “The Anatomy of Loneliness,” (short story). The American Mercury, October 1941.**
— “The Lion at Morning,” (short story). Harper’s Bazaar, October 1941.
— “The Plumed Knight,” (short story). Town and Country, October 1941.
— “The Last Letter of Thomas Wolfe.” Carolina Play-Book, September 1941. (This letter was written to Maxwell Perkins.)*
1942
— “Gentlemen of the Press,” (short play). The Black Archer Press, January 19, 1942.**
— From Of Time and the River: America, (excerpt from Wolfe’s second novel). Designed by a class in typography at Harrison Commercial Art Institute and printed at the Norman Press, Chicago, 1942.*
— America, (excerpt from Of Time and the River). Handset and printed by Jack Werner Stauffachee and presented to friends of the Greenwood Press. San Mateo, CA: Greenwood Press, 1942.*
— What Is Man, (excerpt from You Can’t Go Home Again). Pamphlet in the handwriting of Robert Hunter Middleton for his friend James T. Mangan, issued in planograph (100 copies). Chicago, 1942.*
1943
— “The Man Who Lives with His Ideas,” a tribute to Frederick Koch and the Carolina Playmakers, written about 1923. The Carolina Play-Book. March 1943.
— Thomas Wolfe’s Letters to his Mother, (collection). Edited, with an introduction, by John Skally Terry, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943.**
1944
— “La Marquise de Mornaye,” (short story). Encore, May 1944.
1945
— A Stone, A Leaf, A Door: Poems by Thomas Wolfe, (selected and arranged in verse). Edited by John S. Barnes. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945.
1946
— The Portable Thomas Wolfe, (excerpts). Edited by Maxwell Geismer. Viking Press, 1946. (Reprinted as The Indispensable Thomas Wolfe, Book Society, 1950).*
1947
— “Old Man Rivers” (short story). Atlantic Monthly, December 1947.
— “Writing Is My Life: Letters of Thomas Wolfe” (collection). Atlantic Monthly, 178 (December 1946); 179 (January 1947); 179 (February 1947). (Letters to Mrs. J. M. Roberts, Asheville, NC.)*
— God’s Lonely Man (an autobiographical sketch). Editor unknown. San Jose College Laboratory Press, 1947. (This piece is the same as “The Anatomy of Loneliness.”)*
1948
— “Something of My Life,” (biographical sketch). Saturday Review of Literature. (A brief portion of this material appeared with the title “Autobiographical Sketch” in George Schreiber’s Portraits and Self Portraits, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1936), February 1948.**
— Mannerhouse, (a play in a prologue and three acts). Harper & Brothers, November 24, 1948.**
— “To Rupert Brooke,” (poem). Four-page booklet privately printed for Richard Picard and used by him as Christmas greetings. Lecram Press, Paris, 1948.*
1949
— “The Years of Wandering in Many Lands and Cities,” (travel notes). Charles S. Boesen, Publisher, November 15, 1949.**
1951
— A Western Journal: A Daily Log of the Great Parks Trip, (journal entries with Edward C. Aswell’s “Note on ‘A Western Journey‘ “). University of Pittsburgh Press, 1951. (Excerpts of this material earlier appeared in The Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer, 1939 as “A Western Journey”).**
1953
— “Justice is Blind,” (short story). The Enigma of Thomas Wolfe, Edited by Richard Walser, Harvard University Press, 1953.
1954
— The Correspondence of Thomas Wolfe and Homer Andrew Watt, (collection). Edited with an introductory note by Oscar Cargill and Thomas Clark Pollock, New York University Press, 1954.**
1956
— The Letters of Thomas Wolfe, (collection). Edited with an introduction by Elizabeth Nowell, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1956.**
1957
— “The Isle of Quisay,” (short story). Comparative Literature, Winter 1957.
— Welcome to Our City, (play). A ten scene play produced by the 47 Workshop, Harvard University, with performances at the Agassiz Theatre, Radcliffe College, May 11-12, 1923. Esquire, October 1957. (This is a shortened version of the 1923 production.)
1960
— “Biographical Fragment,” (sketch). Carolina Quarterly, Spring 1960.
1961
— The Short Novels of Thomas Wolfe, (collection). Edited, with an introduction by C. Hugh Holman, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1961.**
— ” ‘Dear Mabel,’ Letters of Thomas Wolfe to His Sister, Mabel Wolfe Wheaton,” (collection). Edited by Mary Lindsay Thornton. South Atlantic Quarterly, 60 (Autumn 1961).*
1964
— Thomas Wolfe’s Purdue Speech: “Writing and Living.” Edited, with an introduction, by William Braswell and Leslie A. Field, Purdue University Studies, 1964.**
1968
— The Letters of Thomas Wolfe to His Mother, (collection). Newly edited from the original manuscripts, with an introduction and notes, by C. Hugh Holman and Sue Fields Ross. University of North Carolina Press, 1968.**
1970
— The Notebooks of Thomas Wolfe, (two notebooks). Edited, with a preface, by Richard S. Kennedy and Paschal Reeves. University of North Carolina Press, 1970.**
— The Mountains, (play). Two versions: a play in one act; a drama in three acts and a prologue. Edited, with an introduction, by Pat M. Ryan. University of North Carolina Press, 1970.**
1977
— The Promise of America, (excerpt). A broadside, edited and privately printed by Aldo P. Magi, distributed as a keepsake at the Thomas Wolfe Fest, St. Mary’s College, Raleigh, NC, October 24-25, 1947.*
1978
— A Prologue to America, (lyrical sketch). Edited, with a foreword, by Aldo P. Magi. Croissant & Company, 1978.**
— Time . . . Thomas Wolfe, (excerpts). Four-sided brochure “A Remembrance,” Thomas Wolfe Fest, St. Mary’s College, October 1-2, 1978. Edited, privately printed and distributed as a keepsake to attendees by Aldo P. Magi.*
1979
— Confessio Amoris, (lyrical verse). Edited by John S. Phillipson and Aldo P. Magi. The Thomas Wolfe Newsletter, Fall 1979, and later presented as a broadside keepsake at the Thomas Wolfe Fest, St. Mary’s College, Raleigh, NC, October 28-29, 1979. (Calligraphy by Charles T. Mayer, Sandusky, OH.)*
1980
— London Tower, (short story). Edited, with a prefatory note, by Aldo P. Magi. Thomas Wolfe Society, 1980.
— The Proem to “O Lost,” (poem). Edited, with a prefatory note by John L. Idol Jr., Thomas Wolfe Society, 1980.**
— Confessio Amoris, (lyrical verse). Editor unknown. Calligraphy by Michael W. Hughey, Asheville, NC. Privately printed as a broadside keepsake to members attending the first meeting of the Thomas Wolfe Society, Asheville, NC, April 12-13, 1980.*
— Thomas Wolfe’s Discovery of America (passages from You Can’t Go Home Again). Single-coated sheet folded once, distributed by the Thomas Wolfe Memorial, Asheville, NC, 1980.*
1982
— The Streets of Durham, (short story) . Edited, with a prolegomenon, by Richard Walser, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1982.**
1983
— K-19: Salvaged Pieces, (essay). Edited, with an introduction, by John L. Idol, Jr. Thomas Wolfe Society, 1983.**
— Welcome to Our City: A Play in Ten Scenes. Edited, with an introduction, by Richard S. Kennedy. Louisiana State University Press, 1983.**
— Beyond Love and Loyalty: The Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Elizabeth Nowell, Together with “No More Rivers,” A Story by Thomas Wolfe, (letters and short story). Edited, with an introduction, by Richard S. Kennedy. University of North Carolina Press, 1983.**
— My Other Loneliness: Letters of Thomas Wolfe and Aline Bernstein, (collection). Edited, with an introduction, by Suzanne Stutman, with a foreward by Richard S. Kennedy, University of North Carolina Press, 1983.**
— The Autobiography of an American Novelist, newly edited versions of The Story of a Novel and Writing and Living, (essays). Edited, with an introduction by Leslie Field. Harvard University Press, 1983.**
— “Lost Poem” within “Crying Wolfe” by Charles Scribner III. Vanity Fair, October 1983.
1984
—  The Train and the City, (short story). Edited, with an introduction, by Richard S. Kennedy. Thomas Wolfe Society, 1984.**
1985
— Mannerhouse: A Play in a Prologue and Four Acts. Edited by Louis D. Rubin Jr. and John L. Idol, Jr., with an introduction by Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Louisiana State University Press, 1985.**
— Thomas Wolfe Interviewed, 1929-1938, (collection). Edited, with a preface, by Aldo P. Magi and Richard Walser. Louisiana State University Press, 1985.**
— Holding on for Heaven: The Cables and Postcards of Thomas Wolfe and Aline Bernstein, (collection). Edited, with an introduction, by Suzanne Stutman, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1985.**
1986
— The Hound of Darkness, (character sketches). Edited, with a preface, by John L. Idol, Jr., Thomas Wolfe Society, 1986.**
1987
— The Complete Short Stories of Thomas Wolfe, (collection). Edited, with a foreward and a preface, by Francis E. Skipp, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1987.** (“The Spanish Letter” published here for the first time.)**
— Letter to Beverly Moore, (broadside). North Caroliniana Society Keepsakes, No. 2, North Caroliniana Society, 1987. (Wolfe to Beverly Moore, November 24, 1929.)*
1988
— “Credo: Thomas Wolfe in Memoriam 1900-1938,” (excerpt from You Can’t Go Home Again). Edited by John S. Phillipson and Aldo P. Magi. A four-sided brochure presented as a keepsake to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Wolfe’s death, privately printed and distributed by Phillipson and Magi to members of the Thomas Wolfe Society meeting in Asheville, NC, May 13-15, 1988.
1989
— The Starwick Episodes, (deleted sequences from Of Time and the River). Edited, with an introduction, by Richard S. Kennedy, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1989. (Republished by Louisiana State University Press, 1995.)**
1990
— Thomas Wolfe’s Composition Books: The North State Fitting School 1912-1915, (collection). Edited, with a foreward, by Alice R. Cotten, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1990.**
— “My Dear Santa Claus” (letter written by Wolfe at age 6). Edited, with a prefatory note by Aldo P. Magi, privately printed for use as Christmas greetings in 1990. Four-page card with photo of Wolfe at age 6 on cover. (Design by Charles T. Mayer, Sandusky, OH.)*
1991
— The Autobiographical Outline for Look Homeward, Angel. Edited, with an introduction, by Lucy Conniff and Richard S. Kennedy, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1991. (Republished by Louisiana State University, 2004.)**
— The Good Child’s River, (a previously unpublished novel). Edited, with a preface and an introduction, by Suzanne Stutman, University of North Carolina Press, 1991.**
— “Nine letters of Thomas Wolfe, 1924-1938,” (collection). Edited with commentary by Aldo P. Magi, South Carolina Review, Vol. 23, No. 2, 1991.**
1992
— “Eleven More Letters of Thomas Wolfe, 1929-1938,” (letters). Edited with commentary by Aldo P. Magi, South Carolina Review, Vol. 24, No. 2. 1992.**
— The Lost Boy, (novella). Edited, with an introduction, by James W. Clark Jr., University of North Carolina Press, 1992.**
— Thomas Wolfe’s Notes on Macbeth. The University of North Carolina, English 37, Winter Quarter, (college notes). Edited, with an introduction, by William Grimes Cherry III, Thomas Wolfe Society, 1992.**
— Dossier on Thomas Wolfe and an Early Admirer (letters). Edited, with a prefatory note, by J. Todd Bailey. Privately published and distributed to members attending the Thomas Wolfe Society meeting, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, May 22-24, 1992. (This keepsake was later published as “Fan Mail: The Correspondence of Isabel Logan and Thomas Wolfe,” Thomas Wolfe Review 1:2 [2005].)*
— Letter to George W. McCoy (broadside). North Caroliniana Society Keepsakes, No. 3, North Caroliniana Society, 1992. (Wolfe to George W. McCoy, October 3, 1929.)*
1993
— Thomas Wolfe on the Portrait of Ben Jonson. A paragraph from a graduate term paper analyzing a portrait of Jonson at Harvard University, 1922. Keepsake, a 2-page foldout (with portrait of Jonson on cover), prepared and privately printed by John L. Idol, Jr. and distributed to members attending the Thomas Wolfe Society meeting, New Orleans, LA, May 1993.*
1994
— [George Webber, Writer]: An Introduction by a Friend, (fragment). Edited, with a foreward, by John L. Idol Jr., Thomas Wolfe Society, 1994.**
— Letter to William Weber (broadside). North Caroliniana Society Keepsakes, No. 3, North Caroliniana Society, 1994. (Wolfe to William Weber, April 16, 1935.)*
1995
— The Party at Jack’s, (novella). Edited, with an introduction, by Suzanne Stutman and John L. Idol, Jr., University of North Carolina Press, 1995.**
1996
— Antaeus, or A Memory of Earth, (discarded fragment from Of Time and the River manuscript). Edited, with an introduction, by Ted Mitchell. Thomas Wolfe Society, 1996.**
1998
— Passage to England: A Selection, (travel notes and observations). Edited, with an introduction, by Suzanne Stutman and John L. Idol, Jr. Thomas Wolfe Society, 1998.
— “Shakespeare: the Man,” (essay). Edited by Ted Mitchell. Thomas Wolfe Review, Fall 1998. (Written by Wolfe in Spring 1916, this essay won first prize in a city-wide competition to commemorate the tercentenary of William Shakespeare’s death.)
2000
— O Lost: A Story of the Buried Life, (novel). The original unabridged version of Look Homeward, Angel, with text established by Arlyn and Matthew J. Bruccoli, with an introduction by Matthew J. Bruccoli. University of South Carolina Press, 2000.
— To Loot My Life Clean: The Thomas Wolfe-Maxwell Perkins Correspondence, (collection). Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Parker Bucker. University of South Carolina Press, 2000.
2001
— The Medical Students, (fragment). Edited, with a foreword, by John L. Idol, Jr. Thomas Wolfe Society, 2001.
2006
— My Father’s Hands (fragment). Edited, with an introduction, by David Strange. Thomas Wolfe Society, 2006.
2007
— Windows of the Heart: The Correspondence of Thomas Wolfe and Margaret Roberts, (collection). Edited, with an introduction by Ted Mitchell, with a foreword by Matthew J. Bruccoli. University of South Carolina Press, 2007.
— The Death of Gant, (fragment). Edited, with a foreword, by John L. Idol, Jr. Thomas Wolfe Society, 2007.
— “The Haunted Grove,” (story fragment). Edited by Shawn Holliday. Appalachian Heritage, Fall 2007.
— “The Mountaineers Learning Marksmanship,” (story fragment). Edited by Shawn Holliday. Appalachian Heritage, Fall 2007.
— “A Recollection,” (story fragment). Edited by Shawn Holliday. Appalachian Heritage, Fall 2007.
2008
— The Four Lost Men: The Previously Unpublished Long Version, (novella). Edited by Arlyn and Matthew J. Bruccoli, with an introduction by Matthew J. Bruccoli. University of South Carolina Press, 2008.
— The Magical Campus: University of North Carolina Writings 1917-1920, (collection). Edited by Matthew J. Bruccoli and Aldo P. Magi, with a foreword by Pat Conroy. University of South Carolina Press, 2008.
— The Wax Cylinders: Julia Wolfe Interviews by John Skally Terry, (collection). Edited, with a preface, by Caroline Keizer and Jan G. Hensley, with a foreword by John L. Idol, Jr. Thomas Wolfe Society, 2008.
2009
— The Whore, (fragment). Edited, with an introduction, by Shawn Holliday. Thomas Wolfe Society, 2009.