Thomas Wolfe Sleeps In

I was testing out the keyword search function of the ever-growing North Carolina Newspapers collection by searching for Thomas Wolfe and found this amusing piece from the Southern Pines, N.C., paper The Pilot from February 5, 1937:

When the author of “Of Time and the River” and other famed best sellers, Thomas Wolfe, was in Southern Pines recently he generously granted an interview to a representative of the Sandhills Daily News. It was to appear the next morning.

That was the night the press broke down and the forms had to be hauled over to Raeford where the paper was printed the next morning. Deliveries were delayed throughout the section until well into the afternoon.

The reporter who secured the interview was frantic. He pictured Wolfe pacing the floor of the James Boyd home wondering where the paper was. He finally called up, around four o’clock p. m., to explain to the author what had happened.

“May I speak to Mr. Wolfe,” he asked the maid.

“Mr. Wolfe is not up yet.”

Saved.

I checked the Sandhills Daily News on microfilm in the North Carolina Collection, but, unfortunately, could find only a mention that Wolfe was in town visiting James Boyd. I didn’t see anything like the interview that The Pilot mentioned.