Tom Wolfe grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and graduated from Washington and Lee University. He received his doctorate in American Studies from Yale University. Mr Wolfe worked as a reporter for The Washington Post, and the New York Herald Tribune. His writing has also appeared in New York magazine, Esquire, and Harper's. His first novel, The Bonfire of the Vanities, was published in 1987 to wide acclaim. His most recent novel, I Am Charlotte Simmons, was published by Cape in 2004. He is the author of the following works of non-fiction: The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, The Pump House Gang, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Text, Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, The Painted Word, Mauve Gloves and Madmen, Clutter and Vine, The Right Stuff, From Bauhaus to Our House and The Purple Decades, A Reader.
A masterpiece...the difference between seeing the world in slices and seeing it in full -- Andrew Ferguson * Wall Street Journal * Powerful... Beautiful... As funny as anything Wolfe has ever written; at the same time it is also deeply, strangely affecting * New York Times Book Review * Fiercely and instantly addictive...this book will be a good friend to you -- Martin Amis * Guardian * Enthralling enough even to satisfy The Bonfire of the Vanities devotees...humane and redemptive -- Ruth Rendell * Sunday Times Books of the Year * A hugely enjoyable and impressive read, 800-odd pages of splendid plot, terrific characterization and astounding detail... Dickens would have approved -- Harry Ritchie * The Times Books of the Year *