CRY WOLFE

In a passing reference near the beginning of his review of Richard Powers’ “The Gold Bug Variations” (Sept. 29), Michael Harris writes, “Granted that (James) Joyce has lasted and (Thomas) Wolfe has not. . . . “ Thomas Wolfe’s demise is a premise I am not willing to grant.

Consider these signs of the vitality of the works of the author most famous for his novels “Look Homeward, Angel” (1929) and “You Can’t Go Home Again” (1940): Wolfe’s works are still anthologized by the major American literature anthologies, his work is still taught in classes, including my own, and his novels have never gone out of print.

In addition to the dozens of scholarly articles and books that have been published about Wolfe in the last few years, Wolfe’s short stories were collected in one edition for the first time in 1987, the same year that David Herbert Donald’s highly acclaimed biography of Wolfe was published. This month, the University of North Carolina Press will publish “The Good Child’s River” (reviewed Nov. 3), a novel that Wolfe left unfinished at his death.

The Thomas Wolfe Society, with hundreds of members nationwide, holds annual meetings for scholars and devotees of the author, and it publishes a journal, The Thomas Wolfe Review.

The point is that Wolfe has lasted. As an American literature professor who wrote a dissertation on Wolfe, studied his original manuscripts at Harvard this summer, and has taught Wolfe to students who still find his fiction vibrant and relevant, I could not let Mr. Harris’ assertion go unchallenged.

JOSEPH BENTZ, AZUSA