Tom Wolfe

(1931 - 2018)

According to Tom Wolfe, when he informed Byron Dobell, the managing editor of Esquire in 1963, that he could not complete an assignment, Dobell told him to type up his notes. He typed forty-nine pages in a night; the next day Dobell cut the “Dear Byron,” running the rest intact. The essay became the lead title in Wolfe’s first collection of nonfiction, The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. His most recent novel, Back to Blood, was published in 2012.