![\"Lindsay](\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2017\/11\/fulenwider_anthony_wolfe_collection-web-copy-300x168.jpg\")
Her father accumulated an extensive collection of first editions, letters and other Wolfe memorabilia and donated it in the 1970s to her alma mater, St. Mary\u2019s College in Raleigh. The collection, housed in the Fulenwider Room, spurred the creation of an annual Wolfe Fest at the college. At this gathering, the Thomas Wolfe Society was born. Her father was a founding member of the group, which still meets annually and publishes The Thomas Wolfe Review.<\/p>\n
St. Mary\u2019s decided to transfer her father\u2019s collection to the Thomas Wolfe Collection at Wilson Library. Just as her father wanted to share his enthusiasm for Wolfe while he lived, Fulenwider wanted people at the University to know that it was her father who contributed so much to the collection now housed at Wolfe\u2019s alma mater.<\/p>\n
Robert Anthony, curator of the North Carolina Collection and director of the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center, thought the 100th anniversary of Wolfe\u2019s earliest published work was an appropriate time to share this behind-the-scenes story about a staff member\u2019s tie to the collection.<\/p>\n
Fulenwider\u2019s collection included this letter written to him by Wolfe\u2019s brother Fred, who became a friend of the Fulenwider family.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were delighted in 1990 when St. Mary\u2019s College in Raleigh offered us the Thomas Wolfe materials that Dr. John Fulenwider gathered over many years. With approximately 2,000 letters, publications, programs and printed ephemera, this was a major addition to our Thomas Wolfe Collection and a gold mine for research on Wolfe and his place in American literature,\u201d Anthony said.<\/p>\n The collection includes extensive correspondence between Wolfe and his family members, files of notable Wolfe scholars and letters exchanged with his literary agent.<\/p>\n One of Anthony\u2019s favorite items is an August 1937 letter to Wolfe from best-selling novelist and short story author Sherwood Anderson, which includes the line, \u201cHell, Tom, you know I like you.\u201d<\/p>\n Fulenwider\u2019s own view of Wolfe is filtered through childhood memories of her father\u2019s enthusiasm. She remembers going to Asheville every summer to visit the Thomas Wolfe House. There they met Wolfe\u2019s brother Fred, identified as the character Luke\u00a0in Look Homeward, Angel. Fred Wolfe was also a character in real life, she said, often breaking into a chorus of the fight song of Georgia\u00a0Tech, his alma mater, and calling her \u201cLittle\u00a0Miss Lindsay.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe would tell stories about them growing up, so I felt like I was getting it firsthand,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n On these trips, Fulenwider\u2019s father would also stop by the Pack Memorial Library in Asheville to chat with a librarian there who often had tips for the collector on where to find Wolfe letters and memorabilia.<\/p>\n Her father died where he was probably happiest, while visiting Raleigh for Wolfe Fest.<\/p>\n Only 22 when her father passed away, Fulenwider said she never sat down and talked to him about his extensive Wolfe collection. \u201cYou just don\u2019t think about it while you\u2019re living it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n![\"Fulenwider\u2019s](\"\/\/casdev.unc.edu\/collegearchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2017\/11\/05ThomasWolfeCollection_TightShot-251x300.jpg\")