In the summer of 1937, Thomas Wolfe was in the North Carolina mountains revising a piece about a party and subsequent fire at the Park Avenue penthouse apartment of the fictional Esther and Frederick Jack. He wrote to his agent, Elizabeth Nowell, I think it is now a single thing, as much a single thing as anything Ive ever written. Abridged and edited versions of the story were published twice, as a novella in Scribners Monthly (May 1939) and as part of You Cant Go Home Again (1940). Now Suzanne Stutman and John Idol have worked from manuscript sources at Harvard University to reconstruct The Party at Jacks as outlined by Wolfe before his death. Here, in its untruncated state, Wolfes novella affords a significant glimpse of a Depressionera New York inhabited by Wall Street wheelers and dealers and the theatrical and artistic elite. Wolfe describes the Jacks and their social circle with lavish attention to mannerisms and to clothing, furnishings, and other trappings of wealth and privilege. The sharply drawn contrast between the decadence of the partygoers and the struggles of the working classes in the streets below reveals Wolfes gifts as both a writer and a sharp social critic.

Binding: Paperback;276 pages; Publisher: Longleaf on behalf of UNC Press; Classification: N/A; Weight: 530.05 g; Dimensions: N/A

Something not quite right? You have 21 days from the day you receive it, to send something back.

Please note, we cannot offer refunds on fashion face masks, cosmetics, pierced jewellery, adult toys, and swimwear or lingerie if the hygiene seal is not in place or has been broken.

Items of footwear and/or clothing must be unworn and unwashed with the original labels attached. Also, footwear must be tried on indoors. Items of homeware including bedlinen, mattresses, and toppers, and pillows must be unused and in their original unopened packaging. This does not affect your statutory rights.

Click here to view our full Returns Policy.