ASHEVILLE—ESPN’s Jeremy Schaap writes that “the Games of the 11th Olympiad were the most siginificant Olympics of the modern era and Thomas Wolfe—who was himself there – captures the atmosphere.” Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Schaap selected “You Can’t Go Home Again” by Thomas Wolfe, published in 1940, as one of the “Five Best” books on the Olympics. Article Link.
Thomas Wolfe attended the 1936 Olympics hosted in Berlin by Adolph Hitler. In “You Can’t Go Home Again” Wolfe describes Hitler at the games, noting that “something like a wind across a field of grass was shaken through that crowd….one sensed a stupendous concentration of effort.” Wolfe further observed “And the thing that made it seem ominous was that it so evidently went beyond what the games themselves demanded.”
Wolfe completed his second novel, “Of Time and the River,” in 1935 with great acclaim. Thomas Wolfe Bio. In the summer of 1936 Wolfe traveled to Germany, to attend the games and “to collect royalties which had been blocked from leaving the country. During this trip it became obvious to Wolfe what Hitler and Nazism were doing to Germany, a country he loved,” wrote Daniel Barth.
“On his return he wrote a story called “I Have A Thing To Tell You,” an indictment of Nazi Germany, which effectively made it impossible for him to visit there again as long as the Nazis were in power,” Barth continued. “In a letter to a friend he wrote about: “. . . the feeling that those tragic and apparently incurable hatreds of Europe were going to explode at any minute–it is good to be here where, whatever we lack, we still have space to move in, freedom to expand” (Letters 546).” Ode to My Dad.
The goal of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial State Historic Site is to preserve and interpret the history of author Thomas Wolfe and his mother’s boardinghouse as depicted in his novel “Look Homeward Angel.” The state historic site is located at 52 N. Market Street in downtown Asheville. For more information, contact the memorial at 828-253-8304 or e-mail contactus@wolfememorial.com.
The Thomas Wolfe Memorial is part of the Division of State Historic Sites in the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources, a state agency dedicated to the promotion and protection of North Carolina’s arts, history and culture through such programs as “Telling Our Stories,” a yearlong celebration of North Carolina’s stories of struggle and freedom, memorable characters and colorful daily life. For more information, visit www.ncculture.com or call 919-807-7385.