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Collection Number: 70016

Collection Title: Fred Wolfe Papers, 1882-1980

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.


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Size About 6000 items
Abstract Frederick William Wolfe was born the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Elizabeth Westall and William Oliver Wolfe, a white family in Asheville, N.C., in 1894. He was educated in Asheville schools and worked as a salesman in Dayton, Ohio, before serving in the Navy during World War I. After his naval service, he attended the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, graduating in 1922. Fred Wolfe worked in Atlanta for Fairbanks, Morse and Company for about seven years, and then held several sales jobs in High Point, N.C., and Harrisonburg, Pa. In 1934, he joined the Blue Bird Ice Cream Company of Spartanburg, S.C., as a salesman, a position he held until the early 1960s. He married Mary Burris in 1943. In his later years, Fred Wolfe devoted himself to perpetuating the memory of his brother, Thomas Wolfe, through the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and in speeches at colleges and universities. Fred Wolfe died in 1980 and is buried in the family plot in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, N.C. The papers contain Wolfe family correspondence, correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell in their roles as executors of the Thomas Wolfe Estate, personal correspondence of Fred Wolfe, manuscripts about Thomas Wolfe, legal documents including executors' reports of the estate of Thomas Wolfe, correspondence about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the restoration of the Old Kentucky Home, family memorabilia, and volumes that chiefly relate to the Wolfe family. Family correspondence covers the years 1882 to 1977 and includes letters to and from Fred Wolfe, Mabel Wolfe Wheaton, Julia E. Wolfe, Frank Wolfe, W.O. Wolfe, Effie Wolfe Gambrell, and other members of the Wolfe and Gambrell families. Some of this material relates to Thomas Wolfe, but much of it concerns family matters. There is considerable correspondence between family members about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, which shows the part the family played in the restoration and preservation of the Old Kentucky Home. Correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell relates to the Thomas Wolfe Estate. There is also correspondence with members of the New York law firm of Ernst, Cane, and Berner, and especially with Paul Gitlin of that firm who succeeded Aswell as executor of the Thomas Wolfe Estate. Other correspondence consists of Fred Wolfe's personal correspondence, some of which demonstrates his efforts in preserving the memory of Thomas Wolfe's life and work. There are letters to and from individuals who wrote about or knew Thomas Wolfe, especially LeGette Blythe, Aldo P. Magi, John Skally Terry, Andrew Turnbull, Henry T. Volkening, Richard Walser, and Wolfe's literary agent and first biographer Elizabeth Nowell. There are also subject files containing material relating to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, documents from the Thomas Wolfe Estate, other legal and financial documents, materials relating to real estate in Asheville and in Florida, correspondence about grave markers in Asheville, a few manuscripts of published and unpublished articles about Thomas Wolfe, and a few copies of Fred Wolfe's speeches about Thomas Wolfe. There are playbills from productions related to Thomas Wolfe or his work, tourist guides for Asheville, and publicity materials about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the Old Kentucky Home. Wolfe family memorabilia includes commencement invitations; some business cards for the Old Kentucky Home; and a small printed advertisement for the North Carolina, Julia E. Wolfe's 1904 boarding house in Saint Louis, Mo. Also included are Mabel Wolfe Wheaton's autograph album and guest book, a small account book that belonged to Julia E. Wolfe before her marriage, a small notebook of W.O. Wolfe, and other items.
Creator Wolfe, Fred.
Curatorial Unit University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. North Carolina Collection.
Language English
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Restrictions to Access
No restrictions. Open for research.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], in the Fred Wolfe Papers (#70016), North Carolina Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
[Note: Collection number changed from #CW5 to #70016 in April 2020.]
Acquisitions Information
The materials were given by Edward C. Gambrell, nephew of Fred Wolfe and executor of his estate, on 22 April 1981; and by David Smith in December 2019 (Acc. 103759).
Sensitive Materials Statement
Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.
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Processed by: Frances Weaver, A. Hope Shull, Nicholas Graham, 1998

Encoded by: Benjamin Bromley, January 2009

Revisions by: Nancy Kaiser, December 2019

Finding aid updated by Dawne Howard Lucas in April 2020 to change the collection number from CW5 to 70016

There were some letters from Thomas Wolfe to members of his family among Fred Wolfe's papers. In accordance with the gift agreement of April 1981, these letters were placed in the Wolfe Family Papers (#70003). The clipping file and loose clippings that were with Fred Wolfe's papers were transferred to the Thomas Wolfe Collection clipping file.

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

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The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Biographical Information

Frederick William Wolfe was born the seventh child and fourth son of Julia Elizabeth Westall and William Oliver Wolfe, a white family in Asheville, N.C., on 15 July 1894. He was educated in Asheville schools and was working as a salesman in Dayton, Ohio, when the United States entered World War I. He returned to Asheville and joined the Navy, serving for about a year. After his naval service, he attended the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, graduating in 1922. Fred Wolfe worked in Atlanta for Fairbanks, Morse and Company for about seven years, and then held several sales jobs in High Point, N.C., and Harrisonburg, Pa. In 1934, he joined the Blue Bird Ice Cream Company of Spartanburg, S.C., as a salesman, a position he held until the early 1960s. He married Mary Burris on 24 July 1943. In his later years, Fred Wolfe devoted himself to perpetuating the memory of his brother, Thomas Wolfe, through the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and in speeches at colleges and universities. Fred Wolfe died on 8 April 1980 and is buried in the family plot in Riverside Cemetery, Asheville, N.C.

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Scope and Content

The Fred Wolfe Papers contain Wolfe family correspondence, correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell in their roles as executors of the Thomas Wolfe Estate, personal correspondence of Fred Wolfe, manuscripts about Thomas Wolfe, legal documents including executors' reports of the estate of Thomas Wolfe, correspondence about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the restoration of the Old Kentucky Home, family memorabilia, and volumes chiefly relating to the Wolfe family.

Family correspondence covers the years 1882 to 1977 and includes letters to and from Fred Wolfe, Mabel Wolfe Wheaton, Julia E. Wolfe, Frank Wolfe, W.O. Wolfe, Effie Wolfe Gambrell, and other members of the Wolfe and Gambrell families. Some of this material relates to Thomas Wolfe, but much of it concerns family matters. There is considerable correspondence between family members about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, which shows the part the family played in the restoration and preservation of the Old Kentucky Home.

Correspondence with Maxwell Perkins and Edward Aswell relates to the Thomas Wolfe Estate. There is also correspondence with members of the New York law firm of Ernst, Cane, and Berner, and especially with Paul Gitlin of that firm who succeeded Aswell as the executor of the Thomas Wolfe Estate. Other correspondence consists of Fred Wolfe's personal correspondence, some of which demonstrates his efforts in preserving the memory of Thomas Wolfe's life and work. There are letters to and from individuals who wrote about or knew Thomas Wolfe, especially LeGette Blythe, Aldo P. Magi, John Skally Terry, Andrew Turnbull, Henry T. Volkening, Richard Walser, and Wolfe's literary agent and first biographer Elizabeth Nowell.

In addition to the alphabetical correspondence files, there are subject files containing material relating to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association, documents from the Thomas Wolfe Estate, other legal and financial documents, materials relating to real estate in Asheville and in Florida, correspondence about grave markers in Asheville, a few manuscripts of published and unpublished articles about Thomas Wolfe, and a few copies of Fred Wolfe's speeches about Thomas Wolfe.

There are playbills from productions related to Thomas Wolfe or his work, tourist guides for Asheville, and publicity materials about the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association and the Old Kentucky Home. Wolfe family memorabilia, which contains only printed material, includes commencement invitations; some business cards for the Old Kentucky Home; and a small printed advertisement for the North Carolina, Julia E. Wolfe's 1904 boarding house in Saint Louis, Mo. Also included are Mabel Wolfe Wheaton's autograph album and guest book, a small account book that belonged to Julia E. Wolfe before her marriage, a small notebook of W.O. Wolfe, and several other items.

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Contents list

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 1. Correspondence.

Box 1

A: General

Alspaugh, William and Patricia, 1965

Anderson, Margaret, 1959-1962

Ariail, Warren G., 1948-1950

Aswell, Edward C., 1938-1948

Box 2

Aswell, Edward C., 1950-1955

Box 3

Aswell, Edward C., 1956-1958

B: General

Bach, Julian, 1947

Baker, George Pierce, 1923

Barber Brothers Orchards, 1966

Barnett, Augusta, 1964-1966 (see also Thomas Wolfe Memorial Association)

Bayley, Virginia, 1961

Beresford, Patricia, 1968

Berner, Anne, 1960-1962

Bernstein, Aline, 1928

Blomberg, Harry, 1942

Bloomgarden, Kermit, 1957-1959

Blythe, LeGette, 1958-1966 and undated

"Book World," 1968

Brown, Roscoe Fisher, 1965

Burton, W. C., 1960

C: General

Carter, Frank, 1936-1941

Box 4

Champion, Myra, 1950-1963 and undated

Chapman, George, 1966

Childress, Leonard, Mr. and Mrs., 1947-1951

Conway, Ray, 1938-1939

Coughlan, Robert, 1956-1960

Crawford, Annie Laurie, 1938 (see also printed material in Box 29)

D: General

Dandy, Walter, 1938

Dashiell, Alfred S., 1953-1959

Davidson College, 1961

Dickson, Frank A., 1948-1953

di Boe, Mizpah, 1956-1962

E: General

Ernst, Cane and Berner, 1938-1968

Box 5

Ernst, Cane and Berner, 1959-1968

Ernst, Cane and Berner (Paul Gitlin), 1958-1972

F: General

Florida Presbyterian College, 1962-1963

Foremost Dairies, 1934-1965 and undated

Foster, Ruel, 1958

Fulenwider, John and Catherine, 1966-1977

Furman University, 1953

G: General

Gambrell, David, 1936-1948

Box 6

Gambrell, David, 1949-1960

Gambrell, Edward C., 1944-1973

Gambrell, Effie Wolfe, 1934-1948

Gambrell, Fred W., 1948-1952

Gambrell, George, 1942-1952

Garrison, V. O., 1934-1938

Box 7

Georgia Institute of Technology, 1956-1962

Graham, Frank Porter, 1950

Greer, Paul, 1938

Greenville High School, 1969

H: General

Hall, Jay, 1961

Hamner, Earl, 1955-1956

Hardwick, J. Gordon, 1949-1955

Harper & Brothers, 1939 (see also Aswell, Edward C.)

Harris, Lon and Elizabeth, 1938-1944

Hart, Henry and Mary, 1938

Harvard University Library, 1960-1961

Hatchett, William R. and Carmen, 1951-1966

Hempstead, Dorothy, 1946-1947

Helmke, Hans, 1963-1966

Holmes, Estelle Barton, 1957-1961

Hutchings, Amy, 1937-1961

J: General

Jack, Peter Munro, 1948-1949

K: General

Kennedy, Richard, 1951; 1964

Kleinberg, Norman, 1938

Box 8

L: General

Lee, Russell and Dorothy, 1938

Life Magazine, 1941-1956

Lindsey, Robert H., 1966

Liptrott, Mildred, 1938-1961

Mc: General

McGill, Ralph, 1946

McNeill, Annie Gibson, 1938-1946

M: General

Magi, Aldo, 1962

Malone, Ted, 1940-1941 and undated

Miller, Daniel Carlos, 1962-1965

Miller, Edward, 1938-1976

Moore, C. B., 1885

Mossman, Joe

N: General

Napolitano, Ralph, 1973

New York Times Book Review, 1960-1968

New York University, 1958

New Yorker Magazine, 1958

Norton, Geraldine, 1935-1961, undated

Nowell, Elizabeth, 1937-1958, undated

Box 9

O: General

P: General

Patton, Wendell, 1964-1965

Pease, A.E., 1945-1951

Perkins, Louise, 1945-1951

Perkins, Maxwell, 1931-1945

Box 10

Perkins, Maxwell, 1946-1947 and undated

R: General

Rapport, Leonard, 1959-1962

Raynolds, Robert, 1965

Reeves, Paschal, 1966-1968

Ricker, Kenneth, 1951-1952

Rifkin, Joyce, 1958-1963

Rau, Robert B.

Rollins, Henry, 1962-1966

Rothman, David, 1965

Ruge, E. C., Dr., 1938

S: General

Sandburg, Carl, 1951-1953

Saturday Review of Literature, 1951-1965

Scribner's, Charles and Sons, 1947-1973 (see also Maxwell Perkins)

Shoemaker, Don and Lyal, 1951-1952

Shubert, John, 1968

Simmons, John and Essie, 1945-1955

Smith, Willard, 1971-1973

Acquisitions Information: Accession 103759

Willard Smith, a New York teacher, met Fred Wolfe during a stop at the Wolfe house in 1971. Wolfe wrote about his current life, shares some stories about his brother, and asks about the well-being of Smith's family.

Correspondence, 1971-1973

Spartan High School, 1962

Stevens, James and Theresa, 1938-1939

Still, James, 1966

Box 11

Stokeley, James, 1938-1951

T: General

Tate, D. W., 1938-1952 and undated

Terry, John Skally, 1940-1952 and undated

Theatrical Interests Plan, 1959

Turnbull, Andrew, 1960-1968

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1949-1963

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Gift Receipts, 1950-1963

V: General

Vaugh, Alexander H., 1965

Volkening, Henry, 1939-1955

Box 12

W: General

Wallace, Robert M.

Walser, Richard, 1950-1978

Walther, John D., 1967 (includes transcripts of an interview with Fred Wolfe)

Watkins, Floyd, 1964

Westall, Annie, 1950-1977

Westall, Henrietta, 1945-1948

Westall, Henry, 1945-1947

Westall, N. B., 1921

Westall, Thomas Casey, 1882-1883

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, 1931-1936

Box 13

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, 1936-1941

Box 14

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, 1942-June 1946

Box 15

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, July 1946-April 1948

Box 16

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, May 1948-April 1950

Box 17

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, May 1950-1952

Box 18

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, 1953-1955

Box 19

Wheaton, Mabel Wolfe, 1956-1958 and undated

Wheaton, Ralph Harris, 1931-1966

Wheelock, John Hall, 1948-1957

Box 20

Wilder, Virginia Gambrell, 1936-1966

Wisdom, William, 1945-1950

Wolf, Edgar, 1943

Wolf, Howard A., 1979

Wolfe, Ben, 1915-1918

Wolfe, Frank, 1934-1935

Box 21

Wolfe, Frank, 1946-March 1948

Box 22

Wolfe, Frank, April 1948-1955 and undated

Wolfe, Fred, 1909, 1920-1938

Wolfe, Julia E., 1920-1936

Box 23

Wolfe, Julia E., 1937-1946 and undated

Wolfe, Louis, 1941, 1951

Wolfe, Rheinhardt Dietz, 1940-1977

Box 24

Wolfe, William Oliver, 1884, 1913-1921

Wood, Jesse L., 1942-1945

Woodbridge, William W., 1938-1939

Wyckoff, Irma, 1947

Wylie, Nancy, 1962-1965

Young, Don C., 1942-1973

Unidentified

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expand/collapse Expand/collapse Series 3. Other Materials.

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