Bonfire of the Vanities Bonfire

I called Burt to ask if he had contact information on Tom Wolfe because I wanted him to write an introduction to my interview with Burt. I wrote to Wolfe. Low and behold, I was sitting in my office one day when I received a letter with a signature that I could not make out.

As I studied it, it looked more like artwork. I then determined that the signature was an improvised drawing of a wolf. I exclaimed to my secretary: “holy tamale, it's Tom Wolfe.”

In awe, I contacted Mr. Wolfe. He agreed to write the introduction and did so. As the Journal was being put together for publication, his best seller, A Man In Full, was released. He appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. I ran the cover with the intro by Mr. Wolfe and my interview with Burt. It was a coup.

My Journal was now the centerpiece of the State Bar Association's annual meeting, which attracts 30,000 lawyers to Manhattan. Mr. Wolfe and Burt gave autographs in my Journal to anyone asking. Tom appeared in an immaculate white suit, cape and an ornate walking stick. He was larger than life, almost glowing with eclectic energy. You could feel the independent creativity within him but at the same time an uncanny trait of humility and loyalty to Burt that one does not expect in somebody of such importance as Tom Wolfe certainly was.

Thomas F. Liotti is an attorney in Garden City and Village Justice in Westbury.