Thomas Wolfe Handwritten College Letter 1916 Done As Poetry W/christmas Wishes For Sale

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THOMAS WOLFE (1900-1938).  Wolfe was an influential American writer, best remembered for Look Homeward, Angel and You Can’t Go Home Again. 

ALS. 1pg, 5 ½” x 3 ¼”. December 24, 1916. Asheville.  An extremely early autograph letter signed “Tom” nine times and “Thomas” once.  He wrote on a penny postcard to one of his boyhood friends, Thomas Wallis of Arden, North Carolina, after his first semester at the University of North Carolina.  Wolfe wrote: “Tom Wallis, my jo, Tom, We’ve studied Greek together, and many a bitter hour, Tom, We’ve spent in one another; But time has wrought a change, Tom; You used to be my bo, But now we’re far apart, Tom, Tom Wallis, my jo.  It’s Christmas time, my jo, Tom, And Christmas warmth is here, may luck and happiness be your lot Thro’ all the coming year; May perseverance be your friend and shiftlessness your foe, Many blessings on your brow, Tom, Tom Wallis, my bo.”  Wolfe addressed the front to “Mr. Thomas Wallis Arden, N.C.” and Wallis wrote in the upper corner “This is from Tom Wolfe, To me.  Tom Wallis”.  In Look Homeward, Angel, one of Wolfe’s characters is named Tom Davis and, in the book, he studied Greek.  Wolfe took Greek during his freshman year of college, and according to his biographer David Herbert Donald, “Only from his course in Greek did he receive any intellectual stimulation…His copies of the Iliad, the Odyssey and Xenophon’s Symposium were heavily marked up and annotated.”  “Jo” is slang for a close friend.  This is an extremely early letter for Wolfe, and there would have been no reason to keep such a note, since he was a decade away from becoming famous.  According to The Letters of Thomas Wolfe to His Mother, there is only one existing letter from such an early date (June 19, 1909), and the next known letter is from September 12, 1917.  The American Book Prices Current, a compendium of sale records, shows no early Wolfe letters ever selling.  The postcard has light soiling and is in fine condition with dark ink.    

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This item has been shown 18 times. Thomas Wolfe Handwritten College Letter 1916 Done As Poetry W/christmas Wishes: $5,000