Unlike "The Far and the Near," which features an unnamed railroad engineer, the majority of Wolfe's longer works employ autobiographical characters, like Eugene Gant. Wolfe's first novel about Gant, Look Homeward, Angel: A Story of the Buried Life (1929), was set in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina. The narrative follows Gant through his turbulent childhood and young adulthood, and its often negative depiction of the townspeople and the American South in general angered many residents.

Wolfe's Of Time and the River: A Legend of Man's Hunger in His Youth (1935) continues the story of Eugene Gant, following him into adulthood and throughout Europe. Like its predecessor, the book was highly autobiographical and drew directly upon Wolfe's experiences in Europe, including his adventures with two contemporary writers, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Sinclair Lewis.

At a writers' conference in 1935, Wolfe presented an essay...