in my second year at Art Center, I was given an assignment to read a book and create some illustrations. I chose Tom Wolfe’s Radical Chic & Mau Mauing the Flak Catchers, two distinct but related articles, previously published in magazines and put out in book form in 1970.
I read and illustrated only “Radical Chic,” about a social gathering held at composer Leonard Bernstein’s Park Avenue apartment, at which Bernstein and others of New York’s liberal elite entertained members of the Black Panther party. My drawings were realistic pencil renderings. I no longer recall the subject of two of the pieces but one was of a joint sitting on a silver tray.
Sometime after that I learned of Wolfe giving a talk at USC, a few miles’ drive from Art Center. I attended the event and after Wolfe spoke, I introduced myself and gave him those drawings.
A few months later I received an extraordinary letter:
It’s somewhat remarkable I even got the thing. There was no zip code on the envelope and Art Center was not, I imagine, a particularly well-known institution to the postal service. I’m grateful that someone at the school found my address and forwarded the correspondence.
Tom Wolfe’s passing in May inspired me to unearth this treasure. I hadn’t seen it in decades, and it was even more flamboyant than I’d recalled.
I’d posted images of the letter on Facebook, prompting a couple friends to inquire about the original drawings. I’ve no idea what happened to them. I did contact the New York Public Library, where Wolfe’s papers and other materials are now archived, but the pictures didn’t turn up in their searches.
My Facebook post caught the attention of Jamie Weatherbe, editor of ArtCenter Stories on Tumblr. She interviewed me about this episode and other aspects of my career for a post in their series.
For a college student, receiving communication in any form from someone like Tom Wolfe is amazing, but the outrageous beauty of this letter, to invoke his words about my drawings, simply bowled me over. Equally inspiring — and humbling — was the way he closed his missive: “I will keep an eye out for your ROCKET, because I expect to see it streaking across the WESTERN SKY….”