Nags, Sluts, and a Deep-Breasted Soulmate from the Shining City: Thomas Wolfe's Women in The Web and the Rock

Book excerpt: I wrote this critical essay after I obtained my Master’s Degree in English and went to a Thomas Wolfe festival in 1991. While I was there, I had the good fortune to run into his nephew, who was the only living relative who actually knew him. I’ve always been a sucker for a good love story and was pleased to discover the best one in American Literature, in my humble opinion, in Wolfe’s long novel, The Web and The Rock. In that thinly-veiled self-portrait, Wolfe loves and captures the spirit of Aline Bernstein. In his extravagant rhetoric, he immortalizes her in his fictional character, Esther Jack. Written in the 1930s, it shows remarkable respect for an independent woman, and in this respect, Wolfe was ahead of his time. The fact that Aline won a Tony award for Best Costume Design, makes the story of her relationship with Wolfe even more fascinating. This eBook also includes photographs.