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- |22
- The character, Leslie Gant, in "Look Homeward, Angel," is based
- upon Leslie E. Wolfe.<@Review_12*69>
-
- "First-born child of W.O. and Eliza Gant; died in
- infancy."<@Biography*23>
- |
-
- |1
- W.O. Wolfe learned independence early as a teenage stonecutter's
- apprentice in Baltimore, Maryland, later starting his career in
- Raleigh, North Carolina. There, he was twice married, first to Hattie
- Watson, whom he divorced. He then married Cynthia C. Hill, who was
- tubercular. By this time, he had changed the spelling of "Wolf" to
- "Wolfe," thinking the latter more elegant. In the early 1880's, he
- and Cynthia moved to Asheville, NC, where Cynthia died of
- tuberculosis. In 1885, he married Julia Elizabeth Westall. Eight
- children were born of this rather unhappy union. Thomas Wolfe was the
- last child and was favored by his father, who wanted Tom to become a
- lawyer. W.O. refused to live in Julia's Spruce Street boarding house
- and maintained the family home on Woodfin Street. His daughter, Mabel,
- supervised the running of that residence. He was remembered as having
- enjoyed rocking on the porch of the boarding house, however, quoting
- from Shakespeare and the "Bible" and orating on timely topics. His
- alcoholism was a problem which contributed to a disfunctional
- family.<@Pennsylvania*1-5><@Homeward*6-11,30-31>
-
-
- W.O. Gant
-
- "A kind of dynamo aswirl with gusto, rhetoric,lust,love of hot
- fires and heaped tables, and a frustrated desire to carve an angel,
- W.O. is a blend of the demonic and angelic. When drunk, he lets his
- demon rip into Eliza and deride her for leaving his bed and board to
- run Dixieland. If the boarding house is not the cause of his outrage,
- on of Eliza's real estate deals is. Sober, he is a respected
- stonecutter, caring father, and concerned, if hypocritical,citizen.
- (His hypocrisy seems limited to drinking. He signs a temperance
- pledge but backslides often.) A wanderer, he came to Old Catawba from
- Walser, married twice before coming to Altamont, where his
- second wife died of tuberculosis, and took trips to New Orleans and
- the Pacific coast before being struck by prostate cancer. He enjoyed
- the theater as a lad, admired Shakespeare,surrounded himself with good
- books, and longed to carve an angel like the ones shipped in from
- Italy to his tombstone shop. His battle against cancer was both
- herioc and pathetic, the latter stemming from his urge to dramatize
- his self-pity. His destiny is to remain something of an outsider in
- Altamont, the man from the north arousing the suspicion of Eliza's
- family and mountain-bred neighbors, but inspiring Eugene's visions of
- a golden land. His big hands, large mustache, and alert eyes give his
- lanky body a physical presence felt by everyone around him. Wolfe
- drew upon his father for this character. Long before writing LHA,
- Wolfe told his mother,"There has never been anybody like papa...He is
- headed straight not for one of my plays, but for a series. He
- dramatized his emotions to a greater extent than anyone I have ever
- known-consider his expressions of 'merciful God'-his habit of talking
- to himself at or against an imaginary opponent....I verily believe I
- can re-create a character that will knock the hearts out of people by
- its reality."<@Companion*132-133>
- |
-
- |10
- The character, Daisy Gant, in "Look Homeward, Angel," is based on
- Effie Wolfe.<@Review_12*69>
-
- "Eugene Gant's older sister; dutiful, quiet, married to a South
- Carolinian."<@Companion*130>
-
- |
-
- |18
- Twin of Benjamin Harrison Wolfe. Character, Grover Gant, in "Look
- Homeward, Angel," was based upon Grover
- Wolfe.<@Homeward*10><@Review_12*69>
-
- Grover Cleveland Gant
-
- "The twin brother of Benjamin Harrison Gant. Grover is a family
- favorite, everyone admiring his gentle ways and good spirits. His
- death in St. Louis from typhoid fever hits the family hard, especially
- his mother, who never seemed the same after his passing. He is the
- subject of one of Wolfe's best and widely known stories, "The Lost
- Boy." He is based on Wolfe's brother Grover Cleveland
- Wolfe."<@Companion*131-132>
-
- |
-
- |13
- Character, Steve Gant, in "Look Homeward, Angel," is based upon
- Frank Wolfe.<@Review_12*69>
-
-
- Steve Gant
-
- "The swaggering,restless, unstable, and whiney eldest son of W.O.
- and Eliza Gant, Steve is inclined to both excessive drinking and
- self-pity. He has all the character flaws of W.O. and none of the
- redeeming virtues. He marries a midwestern woman of German descent.
- Wolfe's model for this character was his brother
- Frank."<@Companion*132>
-
- |
-
- |14
- The character, Helen Gant, in "Look Homeward, Angel," was based
- upon Mabel Wolfe.<@Review_12*69>
-
- Helen Gant
-
- "The younger daughter of W.O. and Eliza Gant. She is rawboned,
- energetic, ambitious, magnanimous, and sociable. Her dream is to be
- a celebrated singer, but she sings professionally only a short while
- with Pearl Hines before becoming the wife of Hugh Barton, salesman.
- Better than anyone else in the family, she could control W.O. Gant
- during his drunken escapades. She became a substitute mother once
- Eliza began to operate a boarding house. 'There was in Helen a
- restless hatred of dullness, respectability. Yet she was at heart
- a severely conventional person, in spite of her occasional
- vulgarity, which was merely a manifestation of her restless energy.
- 'Like her father, she had a thirst for whiskey. She is based on
- Wolfe's sister Mabel."<@Companion*132>
-
- |
-
- |16
- The character, Luke Gant, in "Look Homeward, Angel," was based
- upon Fred Wolfe.<@Review_12*69>
-
- Luke Gant
-
- "A stuttering, stammering,humorous, energetic,aggressive and
- sometimes clownish son of Eliza and W.O. Gant, Luke makes his
- mark as a salesman and organizer of a sales force of Altamont
- boys. A gregarious person, his greatest fear is loneliness.
- He and Helen have a special affinity. Sometimes he appeared
- to be possessed by a demon, especially when he laughed. Wolfe
- modeled Luke on his brother Fred."<@Companion*132>
-
- |
-
- |2
- "After their marriage in 1837, they resided at Deardorfs's Mill
- where their first five children were born. In 1844, they moved to the
- Latimore Community, had a small farm, attended the United Brethren
- Church. By 1850, Jacob, a "laborer," with a real estate value of only
- $300, had six children... ."<@Pennsylvania*16>
-
- |
-
- |3
- "After their marriage in 1837, they resided at Deardorfs's Mill
- where their first five children were born. In 1844, they moved to the
- Latimore Community, had a small farm attended the United Brethren
- Church. By 1850, Jacob, a "laborer," with a real estate value of only
- $300, had six children ..."<@Pennsylvania*16>
-
- |
-
- |6
- Julia Elizabeth Westall, Thomas Wolfe's famous mother, figured
- very prominently in his life and in the development of many of his
- unique personality and intellectual characteristics. It is she who is
- painted as the businessperson mother and wife of "Look Homeward,
- Angel," while Wolfe's father, "W.O." manifests the personality of a
- dreamer and sometimes that of a drunkard and n'er do well. Closer
- examine of the historical record may ultimately reveal this to be
- inaccurate. The character, Eliza Gant, in "Look Homeward, Angel," is
- based upon Julia Westall
- Wolfe.<@Pennsylvania*18><@Homeward*6><@Biography*21>
-
- Eliza Gant
-
- "Daughter of Major Thomas Pentland and wife of W.O. Gant. Her
- children are named Steve, Daisy, Helen, Grover Cleveland,Benjamin
- Harrison, Luke, and Eugene; another child,a daughter named Leslie,
- died in infancy. Eliza come from a mountain family,sharing its
- shrewdness, independence, mystical leanings, ambition to overcome the
- deprivation caused by the Civil War and Reconstruction, and
- clannishness. More than anything else, she shares her family's
- superstitiousness and love of storytelling. Except when pursing her
- lips or winking her eye, both potent means of body language for her,
- she never falters in recounting some tale about her own life or some
- story about an ancestor, cousin, or neighbor. Her manner of talking
- resembles the flow of associative thought in Molly Bloom's stream of
- consciousness, not merely by happenstance, since Wolfe knew Joyce well
- and considered his depiction of Eliza in "The Web of Earth" Molly's
- equal if not better (LTW, 339). Her talkativeness can both fascinate
- and exasperate,and the depth and exactness of her memory amaze
- everyone around here. She has to endure the shame of her husband's
- drunken sprees and the sting of his words when he rants against her
- kin, her greed for more land, and her decision to leave his bed and
- board to run Dixieland. Strong enough to stand any abuse heaped upon
- her by W.O. and any of their offspring, she becomes a successful
- businesswoman, buying and selling lots in Altamont and elsewhere. Her
- industry wins approval, but her frugality turns into stinginess. She
- saves everything, even short pieces of string. She is proud of her
- family but has problems showing her love outwardly. She keeps her
- youngest child, Eugene, at her breast long past the normal weaning
- time and sleeps with him until the ninth year. She figures prominently
- in two death scenes, Ben's and W.O.'s. Wolfe's mother, Julia Westall
- Wolfe, served as the model for this character."<@Companion*130>
-
- |
-
- |37
- "On August 8, 1862, he joined Company "I," 127th Regiment
- Walser Volunteers. He died of pneumonia, February 16, 1863, at
- Camp Allemon, near Fredericksburg, Pennsylvania."<@Pennsylvania>
-
- |
-
- |23
- Thomas Wolfe is the central figure in this journal. It is his
- family which is the centerpiece of his first novel, "Look Homeward,
- Angel." It is also they who are so becluttered with the
- characteristics of their fictional counterparts, that their historical
- personages may be in danger of being
- lost.<@Review_12*69><@Homeward*462>
-
-
- Eugene Gant
-
- "The central character of LHA and OT and son of W.O. and Eliza
- Gant, Eugene is in large measure Thomas Wolfe outwardly; inwardly, the
- correspondence is sometimes close, but enough differences exist to
- prevent the knowing reader from proclaiming Wolfe and Eugene one and
- the same. Wolfe, to take only two instances, was far more outgoing and
- fun-loving than Eugene. Eugene suffers keenly from isolation, neglect,
- family squabbles, the selfishness and greed of certain family members,
- and the taunts and charges of favoritism hurled by other siblings,
- charges usually resulting from the fact that Eugene is sent to a
- private preparatory school and later to Harvard. Creatively inclined,
- he spends much time reading and fantasizing and comes under the
- influence of a sensitive teacher, Margaret Leonard, who heightens his
- love of poetry, something he had begun to admire from the lips of his
- father, who likes to quote poems or passages from Shakespeare's plays.
- Eugene likes the warmth and hospitality of this father but loathes his
- mother's closefistedness. A sometimes happy but often tormented
- student, Eugene becomes a hopeful and then failed playwright, a
- harried teacher, a wanderer, and an aspiring novelist, realizing while
- in France that his major theme is to be America. As a hopeful writer,
- he tends to be somewhat like Stephen Dedalus or Lord Byron, though
- impulses like those of Jonson, Swift, H.L. Mencken, and Sinclair Lewis
- bring a sting to what he says. Eugene is on a troubled mission of
- self-discovery and is prone to cast himself in the role of the
- misunderstood artist. Wolfe was ready to turn to a new surrogate after
- LHA, but came back to Eugene as a way of tying together materials
- written after the publication of his first novel At last, tired of the
- subjectivity, the Eugene Gant-i-ness of his first surrogate, Wolfe
- turned to George Webber."<@Companion*131>
- |
-
- |17
- Twin brother of Grover Cleveland Wolfe. The character, Ben Gant,
- in "Look Homeward, Angel," is based upon Benjamin Harrison
- Wolfe.<@Review_12*69><@Homeward*47>
-
- Benjamin Harrison Gant
-
- "The twin brother of Grover Cleveland Gant; the 'quiet one' of
- the Gants who is much admired by his younger brother Eugene,who learns
- from him that he must look within himself and go his own way if he is
- to become what he wants to be. Ben is honest, laconic, and energetic
- of spirit, though weak of body. His death is one of Wolfe's
- acknowledged masterpieces. He seems to appeal to an angel when he
- wants a witness to some human deed or word, and his ghost becomes the
- angel to whom Eugene turns for succor. He works as a newspaperman in
- Altamont and elsewhere. The model for this character was Wolfe's
- brother Benjamin Harrison Wolfe, to whom he dedicated FDTM (FROM DEATH
- TIL MORNING).<@Companion*129-130>
-
- |
-