THOMAS WOLFE PACK PART 2

The rest of Thomas Wolfe pack part 2 begins with big shoes to fill. (Click here for Wolfe Pack One.)

How big? Wolfe was six feet six inches. He didn’t prance around in ballet slippers.

His sleds probably rolled to size fourteen or fifteen.

Like a forty inch waist in mid-life, and shopping at the Big And Tall Store, any shoe over thirteen is hard to find, and if you do find them they look like the shoes in the top image.

Either way, Thomas Wolfe left big shoes to fill, and the Thomas Wolfe Pack Part 2 accepts the challenge.

Wilma Dykeman’s chair sits on the Old Kentucky Home porch.

Her memory sits in the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame.

From leesmith.com:

This is the story of Lee Smith, but it’s also the story of a time and place that most of us will never experience. Told with great honesty, humor, and sensitivity, DIMESTORE, like Eudora Welty’s ONE WRITER’S BEGINNINGS or Annie Dillard’s AN AMERICAN CHILDHOOD, is a book that will resonate not just for Lee Smith’s fans, but for anyone who is interested in writing or who longs to know a way of life fast disappearing.

This one, the Elizabeth Kostova chair, might be the hot seat.

From wiki:

Kostova finished the novel in January 2004 and sent it out to a potential literary agent in March.^[5] Two months later and within two days of sending out her manuscript to publishers, Kostova was offered a deal—she refused it. The rights to the book were then auctioned off and Little, Brown and Company bought it for US$2 million (US$30,000 is typical for a first novel from an unknown author). Publishers Weekly explained the high price as a bidding war between firms believing that they might have the next Da Vinci Code within their grasp. One vice-president and associate publisher said “Given the success of The Da Vinci Code, everybody around town knows how popular the combination of thriller and history can be and what a phenomenon it can become.^“ Little, Brown, and Co. subsequently sold the rights in 28 countries.^[12] The book was published in the United States on 14 June 2005.

This writer is young enough, smart enough, and Thomas Wolfe enough to make the sort of connections between our time and Wolfe time.

Wolfe loved Germany, Kostova loves Germany. Both Ivy League educated. They both have mountain time, but Liz did what Wolfe never did: A $2 million book deal?

Our Thomas Wolfe left this world with little left over. Elizabeth will have to work hard to blow a couple million. To show she knows her place, she started a foundation to support creative writing…for Bulgarians.

Hey, if that’s the dream you dream, make it come true. Kostova had the dream. Maybe you will, too?

Thomas Wolfe reached into the mountains and flipped a switch for North Carolina writers. These people sponsor chairs, make a North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame, and teach, and write. What’s that make the rest of us?

Don’t you want a Literary Hall of Fame for your state? Who’d be in it? That’s the tough question.

Do you have living memorials for writers in your state?

Wolfe was a big man. Probably had a big wing span in those arms. If he lived long enough he’d have wrapped us all in a big old North Carolina bear hug.

“Are there bears in Carolina?” you ask.