by Moe Zilla

Created on: April 04, 2008   Last Updated: April 05, 2008

In 1945, Maxwell Perkins released a rare and wonderful book. Seven years after the death of novelist Thomas Wolfe, he reviewed the author's past novels and made a remarkable discovery. The flowing descriptions roamed through grand themes which were very close to poetry. As Wolfe's executor, 61-year-old Perkins decided to authorize a very special collection. His publishing house released a selection of Wolfe's writings which had been carefully typeset as poems.

The book's title comes from Wolfe's most famous page - "A Stone, a Leaf, a Door." It's the opening paragraph of "Look Homeward, Angel," and it lends itself beautifully to poetry.

A stone, a leaf, an unfound door;
Of a stone, a leaf, a door.
And of all the forgotten faces....

The poem opens the book, describing man's desperate search for "the lost lane-end into heaven" and the desire to understand other men. And it's followed immediately by a poem about the face of his brother Ben.

In a foreword, Louis Untermeyer argues that Wolfe had always resisted the label of poet for himself. "This collection restores Wolfe to the company from which he fearfully excluded himself," he writes, "and to which he rightfully belongs." Perkins had also edited Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway, but there was something special about Wolfe's prose, Untermeyer argues. There's an unmistakable rhythm to currents of his descriptions, and he suggests that readers could be discovering "a new American poet."

Wolfe died at the age of 38, but his whole career is represented here. "Gant" and "Eugene" were obviously taken from the character descriptions in "Look Homeward Angel." But the book also includes selections from Wolfe's volume of short stories, "From Death To Morning," and even his first novel, "Of Time and The River." Wolfe had switched publishers before his final three novels, and there's a significant note below the book's copyright notice. Wolfe's original publisher obtained permission from his subsequent publisher, so the poems in the book also represent "You Can't Go Home Again," as well as Wolfe's two posthumous novels. ("The Hills Beyond" and "The Web and the Rock.")

Wolfe was the best writer of his generation, according to William Faulkner, and his grand flourishes would be an inspiration to future generations. But the book is a real revelation, offering fresh perspectives on a familiar American writer. Wolfe took a great care in his craft, and the poems showcase the passion behind his great sentences. Ultimately the book leaves behind one more testament to his love for words and for the world around him.

"Remembering speechlessly,
We seek the great forgotten language,
The lost lane-end into heaven.

A stone, a leaf, an unfound door."

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