Literary legend Tom Wolfe began wearing only white suits in 1962. But even before, the stylish scribe was into uniforms.
In a new interview, the writer says he was once headed to becoming a pro baseball player.
“When you’re in school, the athlete is much admired, and the writer is . . . meh,” Wolfe, 82, tells Man of the World’s fall issue. “Somebody says they’re a writer, who cares! My greatest interest was in becoming a Major League Baseball player . . . I played in high school, I played in college, and I played two years of semi-pro ball waiting to be discovered by scouts. I even played in a semi-pro league where there were a couple real hot prospects.”
Wolfe further tells Christopher Tennant about another sartorial swell who was often overlooked, painter Richard Merkin. “[He] was the greatest dandy that I ever met in New York,” Wolfe recalls. “He never attracted . . . major attention . . . but he was the real thing. He couldn’t stand the fact that Fred Astaire wore a carnation and a pocket hank. He said you have to choose one or the other.”