Thomas Wolfe at work on his visit to Asheville in 1937.
During that summer he finished The Party at Jacks which
would become a part of You Can't Go Home Again.

Return of an Angel

A play by

Sandra Mason

Synopsis

In 1937 Thomas Wolfe returned to Asheville for the first time since the publication of his debut novel, Look Homeward, Angel. The thinly veiled characters and events in the book had so enraged the citizens of his hometown that it would be seven long years before he returned.

In that absence Wolfe struggled with the bitter reaction of his hometown, to success, and to the shallowness of fame. He also labored to find a voice for his second novel. Meanwhile, during that same seven years, the citizens of Asheville also struggled to make sense of Tom's painful portrayal of his hometown and its people. Family members, friends and many others suffered with the belief that, now, all knew of their petty crimes and moral weaknesses. Of even greater consequence, however, was the fact that the town had suffered economical collapse as the whole nation fell deeper and deeper into the great depression.

During that homecoming visit George McCoy, an editor at the Asheville Citizen-Times, asked Thomas Wolfe to write an article for the paper. Thirty minutes before he was to leave for New York, Tom placed the essay Return on McCoy's desk. In it, Wolfe told how he had written about his native land, his hometown, his childhood and his youth. He spoke of the faces, the lives, and the histories from years long ago. Then he simply offered that, perhaps, there was nothing more to say. Clearly, if there was to be any forgiveness it would be with nothing more than a knowing glance.

Thomas Wolfe returned to New York and would never again see his hometown.

Though it had not been easy, he had come to terms with Asheville and, indeed, some of Asheville had begun to come to terms with their turbulent and talented native son. Return of an Angel is that story.



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