“What was it - this implacable remoteness, this inability to surrender herself to the warmth and comradely feelings of others? Could being an academic star, being applauded over and over again as a prodigy, take the place of all that? She shuddered with a feeling she couldn't have put a name to. It was the congenital human fear of isolation.”

American author and journalist

Tom Wolfe was an American author and journalist associated with New Journalism. He became known for writing in a style that brought literary techniques into reporting, especially during the 1960s and 1970s. His work often takes a satirical view of American life, with close attention to the counterculture of the 1960s, class, social status, and the habits of New York City’s economic and intellectual elite. That mix of reportorial detail and sharp social observation is central to his reputation.