Virginia-born Tom Wolfe invented the stylized exclamation-point-filled New Journalism with a 1963 Esquire feature titled “There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.” For decades, Wolfe was one of America’s most popular and acclaimed authors in both fiction and nonfiction, and his bestselling books include The Right Stuff (1979), The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987), and A Man in Full (1998).
“The Pump House Gang,” Wolfe’s 7,000-word essay on Southern Ca…
