This Goodly Land

Tobias Wolff (June 19, 1945–present)

Other Names Used

• Tobias Jonathan Ansell Wolff: full name
• Jack Wolff: name adopted as a boy in honor of Jack London
• Tobias Jonathan von Ansell-Wolff, III: name used for preparatory school applications

Alabama Connections

• Birmingham, Jefferson County: birthplace

Selected Works

• Wolff, Tobias. In the Garden of the North American Martyrs: A Collection of Short Stories. New York: Ecco Press, 1981. Rpt. as Hunters in the Snow. London: Cape, 1982.
• Wolff, Tobias. The Barracks Thief. New York: Ecco Press, 1984.
• Wolff, Tobias. This Boy's Life: A Memoir. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1989. Rpt. New York: Grove Press, 1999.
• Wolff, Tobias. In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War. New York: Knopf, 1994.
• Wolff, Tobias. The Night in Question: Stories. New York: Knopf, 1996.
• Wolff, Tobias. Old School: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 2003.
• Wolff, Tobias. Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2008.

Literary Awards

• "In the Garden of the North American Martyrs" included in Prize Stories 1981: The O. Henry Awards
• "Next Door" included in Prize Stories 1982: The O. Henry Awards
• "Sister" included in Prize Stories 1985: The O. Henry Awards
• PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, PEN/Faulkner Foundation, 1985, for The Barracks Thief
• Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Biography, 1989, for This Boy's Life: A Memoir
• Rea Award for the Short Story, Dungannon Foundation, 1989
• Whiting Writers' Award, Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation, 1989
• Ambassador Book Award, Biography & Autobiography, The English-Speaking Union of the United States, 1990, for This Boy's Life: A Memoir
• Alabama Author Award, Alabama Library Association, 1995, for In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War
• Academy Award in Literature, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 2001
• PEN/Malamud Award for Short Fiction, PEN/Faulkner Foundation, 2006

Biographical Information

Tobias Wolff was born in Birmingham, Ala. Wolff’s parents separated when he was four, and he moved to Florida with his mother. Six years later, they moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then to Seattle, Wash. After Wolff’s mother remarried, they moved to a small town several hours north of Seattle. Wolff’s step-father was abusive, and, in response, Wolff engaged in rebellious behavior. At age fifteen, Wolff spent a summer living with his older brother at their father’s home in the San Diego area. His brother encouraged Wolff in his ambition to become a writer and gave him daily assignments in literature and creative writing. The following year, Wolff used forged documents to obtain a scholarship to the Hill School, a Pennsylvania preparatory school. He was expelled in his senior year for poor academic performance and spent four years in the US Army. He was stationed in Vietnam the last year of his Army service. After his discharge, Wolff traveled to England and decided to enroll at Oxford University. He earned BA and MA degrees in English language and literature in 1972 and 1975, respectively. While in England, Wolff published a novel, Ugly Rumours.

On his return to the United States, Wolff briefly worked as a reporter at The Washington Post before moving to California, where he held a Wallace Stegner fellowship at Stanford University in 1975 and 1976. Wolff’s first published short story, “Smokers,” appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in 1976. Wolff earned an MA at Stanford University in 1978. He taught briefly at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt., and at Arizona State University before joining the faculty at Syracuse University, where he taught for seventeen years. In 1981, Wolff published In the Garden of the North American Martyrs, a short story collection. Since then, Wolff has published additional story collections, two memoirs, and another novel. A motion picture version of This Boy’s Life was released in 1993. Wolff has received grants from the Mary Roberts Rinehart Fund and the Lila Wallace-Readers’ Digest Foundation, as well as fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1997, Wolff returned to Stanford University, where he is the Ward W. and Priscilla B. Woods Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences.

Interests and Themes

Tobias Wolfe writes short stories, novels, and memoirs. Major subjects of his work include moral choice, commitment to family, and the creation of identity.

For More Information

Please check your local library for these materials. If items are not available locally, your librarian can help you borrow them through the InterLibrary Loan program. Your librarian can also help you find other information about this author.

There may be more information available through the databases in the Alabama Virtual Library. If you are an Alabama citizen, AVL can be used at your public library or school library media center. You can also get a username and password from your librarian to use AVL at home.

Reference Books

• Hannah, James. Tobias Wolff: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996.

Reference Articles

• Cheng, Terrence. "Interview with Tobias Wolff". Crazyhorse 52. (1997): 116-124.
• Lyons, Bonnie, and Bill Oliver. "An Interview with Tobias Wolff". Contemporary Literature 31.1. (1990): 1-16.
• Orringer, Julie. "Tobias Wolff". Believer 3.4. (2005): 43-45, 48-55.
• Scofield, Martin. "Winging It: Realism and Invention in the Stories of Tobias Wolff". Yearbook of English Studies 31. (2001): 93-108.

Reference Web Sites

• "Tobias Wolff". Bhamwiki. 2006. http://www.bhamwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tobias_Wolff.
• Smith, Joan. "The Salon Interview: Tobias Wolff". Salon.com. 1996. Salon Media Group, Inc. http://www.salon.com/dec96/interview961216.html.
• Swaim, Don. "Audio Interview with Tobias Wolff". Wired for Books. 2006. Ohio University. http://www.wiredforbooks.org/tobiaswolff/index.htm.

Photo by Marion Ettlinger; courtesy of Bloomsbury.

Last updated on May 30, 2008.