Famous authors honor Tom Wolfe: 'Peerless,' 'insightful,' 'magnificent'

Writers, editors, media personalities, directors, and more spoke out in mourning Tuesday when news arrived that Tom Wolfe, the prolific author behind The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, died on Monday at the age of 88.

“RIP the peerless Tom Wolfe,” journalist and author Tina Brown tweeted. “How I shall miss that swirling script on the handwritten notes, the flair of your white suit entering a room! Wish we could have read you on the Met Ball. You were the best of the best.”

PHOTOS: Stars we lost in 2018

The National Book Foundation, which awarded Wolfe the Distinguished Contribution to American Letters in 2010, sent its “thoughts” to the writer’s “family and friends.” The New York Times book review editor Pamela Paul called Wolfe’s death “the passing of an era” and The Paris Review wrote, “Rest in peace.”

Wolfe wrote a variety of fiction and nonfiction works over the course of his illustrious career. The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby marked his first published book in 1965, followed by works like I Am Charlotte Simmons, A Man In Full, Back to Blood, and The Kingdom of Speech.

How Money Got Free author Brian Patrick Eha called Wolfe “a true original,” New York Times best-seller Brad Thor praised him as a “magnificent author,” and The New Yorker‘s Susan Orlean recalled how “dazzled” she was by The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.

Alex Gibney featured Wolfe for his documentary Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson and remembered his “wonderful interview.” He wrote, “I vividly remember him (I was running the record player for the memorial music) giving the eulogy to a wonderful Yale professor, Norman Holmes Pearson.”

See more reactions below.