SOURCE: “Tom Wolfe Unchanged By Fame,” in Journal of American Culture, Vol. 14, No. 3, Fall, 1991, pp. 11–12.

In the following essay, Rouse recalls a personal meeting with Wolfe, while also discussing the writer's early years and development into a journalist.

It was in the 1960s. My wife and I were flying to England and we had just boarded the airplane. Down the aisle came a thin young man. He wore a white suit despite the fall weather.

“Aren't you Tom Wolfe?” I asked.

He was, and we were soon in conversation about our alma mater, Washington and Lee, and mutual journalistic friends.

“Excuse the white suit,” Tom said, “My p.r. man insists I wear it. I'm having an interview with the British press when we reach the airport to promote my new book.”

Wolfe had just made a hit with his Esquire piece, “The Kandy-Colored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby,” about...