The Lost Boy: A Novella

by Thomas Wolfe

Overview

Thomas Wolfe's The Lost Boy is a captivating and poignant retelling of an episode from Wolfe's childhood. The story of Wolfe's brother Grover and his trip to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair is told from four perspectives, each articulating the sentiments of a different family member. The Lost Boy also captures beautifully the experiences of growing up at the turn of the century and the exhilaration and loss of childhood. For this illustrated edition, James Clark unearthed Wolfe's original manuscript, which was first published in the 1930s in a heavily abridged form.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807844861
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	08/26/1994
Series:	Chapel Hill Books
Edition description:	1
Pages:	95
Sales rank:	561,397
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.23(d)

About the Author

James Clark teaches English at North Carolina State University.

Date of Birth:

October 3, 1900

Date of Death:

September 15, 1938

Place of Birth:

Asheville, North Carolina

Place of Death:

Baltimore, Maryland

Education:

B.A., University of North Carolina, 1920; M.A., Harvard University, 1922; further graduate study, 1923

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

The Lost Boy is a moving valediction and a sure-footed example of Wolfe's stylistic power.—Publishers Weekly



Typically and often beautifully Wolfean, the tale is a moving lament not only for lost youth, lost innocence, and lost hope, but for lost time itself.—Kirkus Reviews



A keen reminder of [Wolfe's] literary mastery and human understanding.—Parade Magazine



An essential discovery.—St. Louis Post-Dispatch



Wolfe's management of point of view, his vivid recreation of the Asheville town square at the turn of the century, and his themes of love, death, and remembrance combine to make Grover Gant a memorable creation, a loving portrait, a boy whose bright candle burned out too soon. It is to such work as this that readers can turn if they want to share the best of Wolfe's talents as a fiction writer.—Studies in Short Fiction

Editorial Reviews

A keen reminder of ÝWolfe's¨ literary mastery and human understanding.

"Parade Magazine"

"The Lost Boy" is a moving valediction and a sure-footed example of Wolfe's stylistic power.

"Publishers Weekly"

A keen reminder of [Wolfe's] literary mastery and human understanding.

"Parade Magazine"

An essential discovery.

"St. Louis Post-Dispatch"

Typically and often beautifully Wolfean.

"Kirkus Reviews"

From the Publisher

Wolfe's 1937 autobiographical novella about the death of his brother evinces the author's fascination with time and remembrance. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Originally edited into a short story for Redbook , Wolfe's novella has finally been published unabridged. Like much of Wolfe's work, this is a thinly veiled autobiographical account of an incident in his family. The story is divided into four sections, each with a different character's voice and viewpoint. Grover Gant's poetical perspective on life in the town square and his experience with a local shopkeeper opens the piece. In Part 2, Grover's proud mother describes her son's precocious power over people on the train to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. Years later, in Part 3, an older sister remembers her last escapade with her brother before he fell ill. And Part 4 finds Grover's youngest brother (Wolfe) in search of the house in which his barely remembered brother died 30 years earlier. For comprehensive Wolfe collections.--Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., Manassas

Library Journal