The Four Lost Men

Book excerpt: "The Four Lost Men is the first publication of the long version of Thomas Wolfe's story of familial and national reflection set during World War I. Here Wolfe supplies a moving portrait of his dying father, as well as a rich meditation on American history and ambitions. Discussion of the title characters - Presidents James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, and Rutherford B. Hayes - provides Wolfe an opportunity to assess the mood and promise of the nation as well as to reflect on the obstacles that had blocked paths toward untapped American potential." "Originally published as a short story of seven thousand words in Scribner's Magazine in 1934 - and later abridged by one thousand words for republication in the 1935 anthology From Death to Morning - Wolfe's expanded tale is published here for the first time in its full length of some twenty-one thousand words."--BOOK JACKET.