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Bonfire of the Vanities author Tom Wolfe dies aged 88 | |
(35 minutes later) | |
Tom Wolfe, author of The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities, has died aged 88, his agent has confirmed. | |
The Right Stuff, about the first American astronauts, was adapted into a film in 1983 with Sam Shepard, Dennis Quaid and Ed Harris. | The Right Stuff, about the first American astronauts, was adapted into a film in 1983 with Sam Shepard, Dennis Quaid and Ed Harris. |
The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, was a satire of 1980s excesses in New York and was also made into a film starring Tom Hanks in 1990. | The Bonfire of the Vanities, published in 1987, was a satire of 1980s excesses in New York and was also made into a film starring Tom Hanks in 1990. |
He also wrote the cult classic Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, published in 1968. | He also wrote the cult classic Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, published in 1968. |
Wolfe died of an unspecified infection in a New York City hospital, his agent, Lynn Nesbit, told Reuters. | |
He was a pioneer of New Journalism, which developed in the 1960s and 1970s, a literary style known written from a subjective perspective as opposed to more traditional objective journalism. | |
His writing was often littered with exclamation points, italics and improbable words. | |
Wolfe's book The New Journalism, published in 1973, was a collection of work by the likes of Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson and Norman Mailer. | |
The editor of the New York Times described Wolfe's passing as the "passing of an era". | |
Irish Times journalist noted his impact on modern journalism. | |
Wolfe won the Bad Sex in Fiction prize in 2004 for I Am Charlotte Simmons and was also shortlisted in 2012 for Back to Blood. | |
He was also known for coining phrases such as "radical chic" - a derogatory term for pretentious liberals - and "the me decade", which described the self-indulgence of the 1970s. | |
"The right stuff" described the intangible characteristics of the first US astronauts and test pilots. | |
He once told the Wall Street Journal: "I think every living moment of a human being's life, unless the person is starving or in immediate danger of death in some other way, is controlled by a concern for status." | |
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