Happy 79th Birthday, Tom Wolfe!

Painted portrait of Tom Wolfe, sitting in chair, wearing white suit and holding a cane
Tom  Wolfe / Everett Raymond Kinstler / Oil on canvas, 2000 / National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Sheila Wolfe; © 2002 Everett Raymond Kinstler

Armed with a Ph.D. in American studies from Yale University (1957), Tom Wolfe became a journalist, working for several prominent newspapers and magazines. His articles on such varied topics as stock-car racing, pop culture, and sports figures like Muhammad Ali soon brought him wide attention—as well as strong criticism—for their writing style, known as "New Journalism."

Collections of Wolfe's controversial articles from this era include The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby (1965). Subsequent books include The Right Stuff (1979), his study of the early years of the American space program, and From Bauhaus to Our House (1981), his criticism of modern architecture. His satires, such as The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), continued his social commentary in fictional form.

In this portrait, Wolfe’s friend Ray Kinstler depicted him in a white three-piece suit, a style that Wolfe first adopted in the 1960s. The work is on display at the National Portrait Gallery in the exhibition "Twentieth-Century Americans" on the museum's third floor.