In Memoriam: Leslie Field (1926-2012)

Leslie Field, an influential Thomas Wolfe scholar and a longtime professor of American literature at Purdue University, died 22 June 2012, at age 85. A revered member of Thomas Wolfe Society, Les was known as a mentor and encourager of younger Wolfe scholars. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In Wolfe circles, one of books for which he is best known is Thomas Wolfe: Three Decades of Criticism, which he edited in 1968. This essay collection is still widely quoted by scholars and students. It introduces readers to classic articles Wolfe's major themes, such as loneliness, South, and Wolfe's increasing social awareness. It also includes articles that give varying perspectives Wolfe's controversial style, such as Bernard DeVoto's oft-cited Genius Is Not Enough. In his introduction to this book, Les explains that one of his goals in presenting essays was to defend Wolfe against critical stereotypes that had built up around his work: One becomes somewhat weary of fashionable remarks which dismiss Wolfe in one or another of stereotyped ways: he wrote only autobiography; his writing is formless; he is a thoughtless juvenile; and so on (xx). Those controversies have remained remarkably consistent over years, and Les's collection has remained steadily relevant. Another of Les's many contributions to Wolfe studies was his editing of Wolfe's 1938 Purdue speech called Writing and Living, which was not published until 1964. Les worked with William Braswell to piece together this address, which Wolfe had delivered just four months before his death, from manuscripts found at University of North Carolina's Wilson Library and at Harvard's Houghton Library. In 1983 Les put that speech and Wolfe's The Story of a Novel into a volume titled The Autobiography of an American Novelist (Harvard University Press). Les's final book Wolfe was Thomas Wolfe and His Editors: Establishing a True Text for Posthumous Publications (1987), in which Les largely defends Edward Aswell's editing of Wolfe's posthumous works. He writes: This study should once and for all dispel myth that Thomas Wolfe's posthumous publications were written by his last editor, Edward C. Aswell. Internal evidence and newly discovered letters prove that Wolfe was writer, Aswell editor: posthumous publications are authentic Wolfe works. (xii) Les dedicated Thomas Wolfe and His Editors to his wife, Joyce. At his death, they had been married for more than fifty-nine years. She collaborated with him a number of writing projects, including two books Bernard Malamud. The first Wolfe novel Les owned, Look Homeward, Angel, came from Joyce when two of them were students at Wayne State University. In his final book Les says of her, the debt goes far beyond possible payment for an inexpensive edition of Look Homeward, Angel. For years we read, studied, and shared Thomas Wolfe. By time I wrote a master's thesis Wolfe I could no longer distinguish her ideas from mine (xvi). The Fields have a daughter, Lynda; a son and daughter-in-law, Jeffrey and Cathy; and two grandsons, Dylan and Collin. Leslie Field was born in Canada in 1926 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1953. He taught at Purdue University from 1956 to 1991. Personal Reflections Leslie Field I had good fortune to have Les Field as my PhD advisor at Purdue, where I completed my dissertation Thomas Wolfe in 1991. My connection with Les was a highlight of my time in graduate school and a key turning point in my career, but it almost didn't happen. When I arrived at Purdue as a naive 21-year-old grad student, I had never heard of Leslie Field, and I had read only a little Thomas Wolfe. The English Department was big--dozens of faculty members and 150 graduate students--so we never met most of English faculty unless they happened to teach our particular courses. …

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