I moved to Asheville, North Carolina from Las Vegas about four years ago. I quickly learned that the city's favorite son is author Thomas Wolfe.
Wolfe was born in Asheville in 1900. He later moved to New York and wrote a best-selling first novel, Look Homeward, Angel, based on his childhood. It was not kind to his hometown. Something like 200 characters in the sprawling story were so thinly disguised that local readers had no difficulty figuring out who was who — and few were happy with their portrayals. Wolfe was not warmly welcomed on future visits to Asheville.