Tom Wolfe and the Strangeness of America

Conservatism doesn’t really produce or nurture writers nowadays. The notable exception in the past couple of generations is Tom Wolfe, who died in 2018. Wolfe was universally beloved. He sold millions of copies of his various writings. Wolfe had a distinctive Southern-gentleman look, complete with “trademark white suit and vest, a high-necked blue-and-white-striped shirt complemented by a creamy silk necktie” as Time magazine once put it; a distinctive reportorial style of writing that borrowed from the wild and flamboyant habits of his subjects; and an ironic view of liberal pieties, which liberals couldn’t help but admire.