The whole conviction of my life now rests upon the belief that loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon, peculiar to myself and to a few other solitary men, is the central and inevitable fact of human existence.

Wolfe abandoned baseball and instead followed the example of his professor Marshall Fishwick by enrolling in Yale University's American Studies doctoral program. Among his models was William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair which described the society of 19th century England. The Post's city editor was "amazed that Wolfe preferred cityside to Capitol Hill the beat every reporter wanted.

Beginning his career as a reporter he soon became one of the most culturally significant figures of the sixties after the publication of books such as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and his collections of articles and essays Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers and The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe Jr. His first novel The Bonfire of the Vanities released in 1987 was met with critical acclaim and was a great commercial success.