The Lost Boy: A Novella

Thomas Wolfe's The Lost Boy is a captivating and poignant retelling of an episode from Wolfe's childhood. The story of Wolfe's brother Grover and his trip to the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair is told from four perspectives, each articulating the sentiments of a different family member. The Lost Boy also captures beautifully the experiences of growing up at the turn of the century and the exhilaration and loss of childhood.

For this illustrated edition, James Clark unearthed Wolfe's original manuscript, which was first published in the 1930s in a heavily abridged form.

Publishers Weekly

Wolfe's 1937 autobiographical novella about the death of his brother evinces the author's fascination with time and remembrance. (Aug.)

A larger than life figure -- like his contemporary, Ernest Hemingway -- Thomas Wolfe embodied a particularly American vision of the restless and eager writer, taking in the totality of his life experience and turning it into a gigantic, unwieldy vision in prose. With the publication of his semiautobiographical Look Homeward, Angel in 1929, Wolfe announced his dramatic entrance on the stage of modern fiction; but an early death made his exit sadly premature.