Remembering Tom Wolfe, author of ‘The Bonfire Of The Vanities’

(FILES) In this file photo taken on November 30, 2012 author Tom Wolfe attends the 2012 Trophee Des Arts Gala at The Plaza Hotel in New York City.Tom Wolfe, the groundbreaking American journalist and novelist best known for seminal works The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Right Stuff, has died, US media reported on May 15, 2018. Wolfes agent Lynn Nesbit told several US media the author died Monday in a Manhattan hospital, where he was being treated for an infection. Various sources gave his age as 87 or 88. / AFP PHOTO / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Fernando Leon

Tom Wolfe (1931-2018) loved American culture for all its excess. Groupies, doormen, hippies, astronauts, bankers and frat boys took on a magisterial presence in his writing, and if there was a hint of hypocrisy in their actions, then all the better.

Wolfe reveled in worlds where people stood tall and acted with extravagance and swagger. He often joined the parade himself, author-turned-celebrity in his cream-coloured suit, walking stick in hand.