Writer Tom Wolfe passed away at the age of 88 on Monday. Wolfe is known for his best-sellers The Right Stuff and The Bonfire of the Vanities. He was in the hospital being treated for an infection when he died.
Wolfe was considered a pioneer in the art of New Journalism during the 1960's and '70s, in which writers immersed themselves in their stories using colorful language that read more like a work of fiction than non-fiction.
Wolfe's early career focused on non-fiction with books such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which told the story of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters as they did LSD and traveled throughout California. In his book The Right Stuff, Wolfe detailed the Mercury Space program.
In 1984, he released his first non-fiction book, The Bonfire of the Vanities, which told the story of a Wall Street banker, a Bronx high school student, and a tabloid reporter. It was initially written as a series of short stories for Rolling Stone published every two weeks in 1984-1985. In 1987, the entire collection was put out as a single book.
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