Master storyteller that he is, Tom Wolfe isn't giving away a single detail of his commencement address for this weekend.
"I don't want to tip my hand," he said. "I'd like to have some element of surprise."
But when he takes the podium Sunday morning, Wolfe will have a wide array of topics to choose from, given his experience as a novelist and reporter--including his latest project, a book on college education.
Although he has spent time across the nation researching college life, he said he learned a lot about Duke from his daughter, senior Alexandra Wolfe, who will be among the graduates in Wallace Wade Stadium.
"I've grown very fond of Duke," he said. "I've met so many students. They're bright, they're personable, and Alexandra's experiences have been great."
Wolfe said little about his upcoming work, but noted the peculiarities of college students. "All across the country, it's amazing," he said. "Students seem to go to bed at two or three in the morning. I can't imagine that. I think it takes its toll on morning classes."
The author began his career as The Washington Post's Latin America correspondent, reporting from Cuba in 1960.
He made his first mark on American literature in 1968 when he published The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, which recounted the adventures of writer-turned-hippie Ken Kesey--author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest--and the Merry Pranksters as they crossed the country on a psychedelic, LSD-laced trip in a flourescent-painted bus. The book, many critics proclaimed, exemplified the spirit of the 1960s and provided the best glimpse into the world of hippies.
"It was one of the weirdest experiences of my life. I had no idea what it was going to be like," Wolfe said of the bus. "That kind of rebellious attitude--in the sense that it no longer made sense to obey rules--set a tone for young people in that whole era... that never has really faded away."
Throughout the ensuing decades, Wolfe established himself as one of America's premier realist novelists. In the 1970s, he authored The Painted Word, a critical look at the elite art world. In 1979, Wolfe released The Right Stuff, offering an inside look at the ethos of the astronauts of the last half of the 20th century.
In the 1980s, he coined the phrase "the me decade" in an essay and in The Bonfire of the Vanities, depicting the bond trading world and the context of the Wall Street-fueled fervor of the decade. His 1998 novel, A Man in Full, detailed the lives of an aging real estate tycoon and a factory worker in contemporary Atlanta.
"I've never tried to do that, to say, OI'm going to come up with some fantastic expression,'" Wolfe said. "In my experience, they either come to you or they don't, and any time a writer plans to influence anybody, he is likely to disappoint not only himself, but also the people he thinks he is going to influence."
Although the author traditionally wears a trademark white suit, white shirt and tie everywhere, he said he would defer to the pageantry of academia.
"I will be pretty well-shrouded by academic robes," he said. "That's a little enough price to pay. I am really looking forward to this. I'd wear anything just to be able to do it.... If I had to dress in all black, I'd do it."
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