Exhibition of LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL drawings

[Bob Anthony <ranthony@email.unc.edu>]

On Sunday, March 29th, the Ackland Art Museum at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill will open LOOK HOMEWARD: DOUGLAS GORSLINE
ILLUSTRATES THOMAS WOLFE, an exhibition of 77 of the original pen and ink
and wash drawings executed for use in the first illustrated edition
(Scribner's 1947) of Thomas Wolfe's novel, LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL.  (LHA 
had first been published in 1929 but without illustration).  

In early 1946, Scribner's commissioned thirty-two-year-old Douglas
Gorsline (1913-1985) to prepare illustrations for the proposed edition. 
Gorsline had already made two portraits of Wolfe, including one for which 
Wolfe sat just a little over a year before his death. The young artist 
had already won considerable attention in the art world (and several
awards) for his work.  (It also helped that he was the son-in-law 
of Maxwell Perkins, Wolfe's editor at Scribner's and the executor of
Wolfe's estate.)

The North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill Library recently acquired nearly all the 106 drawings Gorsline
produced for the book for inclusion in its Thomas Wolfe Collection. 
To celebrate this acquisition the Ackland is presenting most of them in 
exhibition.  Also included in the exhibition are four additional drawings 
produced by Gorsline in 1952 for a special Modern Standard Authors printing 
of the illustrated edition, which was to be marketed for college use.
These four drawings were substituted for ones deemed too sexually suggestive in
the 1947 edition.

The LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL contract was Gorsline's first as a book
illustrator.  He would subsequently illustrate more than fifty additional
books, including THE COMPLEAT ANGLER (Limited Editions Club, 1948); WHAT
PEOPLE WORE--which he also wrote--(Viking, 1952), and numerous children's
books for Random House, including NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, 1975.  He also
produced an impressive number of oils, watercolors, and other graphics.

The Ackland exhibition offers an excellent opportunity to see Gorsline's
LHA work as an illustrator under the best possible conditions.  In the book, 
the drawings are reduced to less than 65 percent of their original size, 
and Gorsline's vigorous pen work can be better appreciated in the originals 
than in the book reproductions.  

LOOK HOMEWARD: DOUGLAS GORSLINE ILLUSTRATES THOMAS WOLFE can be viewed at
the Ackland from March 29 through May 30, 1998.  The exhibition will
subsequently travel to the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of
Rochester (May 21-August 15, 1999) and then to the Asheville Art Museum
(September 28-December 31, 2000).  I hope that many of you will be able to
see the show at one of these locations.

To accompany the exhibition, the North Carolina Collection has published a
44-page catalogue, which includes essays by Timothy Riggs, Assistant 
Director for Collections at the Ackland, on Gorsline's LHA illustrations;
by award-winning author Wilma Dykeman on the complex Wolfe/Asheville
relationship; and by Marie Via, Curator of Exhibitions at the Memorial
Art Gallery, on Gorsline's post-LHA career.  The essays are
accompanied by reproductions of selected Gorsline drawings.  Individuals
interested in acquiring  a copy of the catalogue ($10, plus shipping
costs) should contact me at the following address.    

Robert Anthony, Curator
North Carolina Collection
Wilson Library, CB 3930
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27514-8890
Telephone: (919) 962-1172
Fax: 919 962 4452
Email: Robert_Anthony@unc.edu