Tobias Wolff

Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff was born on 19 June 1945 in Birmingham, Alabama. His parents divorced when he was young; his older brother Geoffrey went to live with their father (the con man and fabulist Arthur Samuels Wolff III, subject of Geoffrey Wolff’s memoir The Duke of Deception), while Tobias went with his mother, Rosemary, who eventually married a man named Dwight Hansen in Concrete, Washington. The stepfather was abusive, manipulative, and violent — an experience Wolff transformed into This Boy’s Life.

Life and Career

Wolff’s youth was marked by the chaos he documented in memoir: forged transcripts, escapes, lies of necessity. He attended the Hill School in Pennsylvania on a falsified scholarship application, served four years in the United States Army including a tour in Vietnam as a Special Forces adviser, then attended Oxford University and Stanford University on the GI Bill. He studied with Wallace Stegner at Stanford, where he was a Stegner Fellow and Jones Lecturer.

In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981), his debut story collection, announced a writer of remarkable assurance. The stories — precise, morally alert, and deceptively simple in surface — dealt with ordinary Americans in moments of ethical crisis: liars caught in their lies, lonely people reaching for connection, decent people failing to be decent when it counts. The title story, about a meek academic who finally speaks the truth at a campus interview, is a devastating fable of compliance and rebellion.

The Barracks Thief (1984), a novella about three young soldiers at Fort Bragg and the petty crime that reveals their characters, won the PEN/Faulkner Award. Back in the World (1985), his second story collection, deepened his reputation.

This Boy’s Life (1989) was the book that made him famous. The memoir — covering his years from ten to eighteen, living with his mother and stepfather Dwight in the Skagit Valley of Washington — is one of the great American coming-of-age narratives. Wolff’s portrayal of Dwight — petty, bullying, dangerously mediocre — is a masterpiece of restrained rage. The 1993 film starring Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio brought the story to a wider audience.

In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994), his Vietnam memoir, was the companion piece — quieter, funnier, and more morally complex than most Vietnam narratives.

The Night in Question (1996) and Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (2008) confirmed his stature as America’s leading short story writer of his generation. Old School (2003), his only conventional novel, was a coming-of-age story set in a prep school literary culture that drew on his experiences at the Hill School.

Wolff taught at Syracuse University and then at Stanford University, where he directed the creative writing programme and influenced generations of students including ZZ Packer, Adam Johnson, and Anthony Marra.

Major Works and Themes

Wolff’s fiction is about the moral lives of ordinary Americans — the lies they tell, the compromises they make, the moments when cowardice or courage defines them. His prose is transparent, precise, and seemingly effortless — the result of painstaking revision. He shares with Chekhov the ability to illuminate an entire life in a few pages, and the refusal to judge his characters while making their moral situations unbearably clear.

In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981) is his best single collection. This Boy’s Life (1989) is his most famous and most moving book. The Night in Question (1996) contains his most accomplished later stories.

Critical Reception and Legacy

Wolff is universally regarded as one of the great American short story writers — in the company of Chekhov, Carver, and Munro. His influence on the contemporary American short story, through both his work and his teaching, is immense. This Boy’s Life is a permanent addition to the American memoir canon.

Key Works

• In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981)
• The Barracks Thief (1984)
• Back in the World: Stories (1985)
• This Boy’s Life: A Memoir (1989)
• In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War (1994)
• The Night in Question: Stories (1996)
• Old School (2003)
• Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories (2008)

Collecting Wolff

Tobias Wolff is collected by enthusiasts of American short fiction and memoir.

In the Garden of the North American Martyrs (1981, Ecco Press, New York) is his debut and the most sought-after title. The Ecco Press first edition had a small printing; fine copies in the dust jacket bring $300–$800.

This Boy’s Life (1989, Atlantic Monthly Press) is the most widely collected. Fine first editions in the jacket bring $100–$300; signed copies $200–$500.

The Barracks Thief (1984, Ecco Press) is available at $100–$300 for fine first editions.

Wolff signs at readings and academic events. He is a cooperative signer, and signed copies of most titles are available at moderate premiums. His papers are held at Stanford University.