05/22/2011
Two of the world’s most famous living writers are named Tom: Tom Wolfe and Tom Stoppard.
Although they work in different branches of literature, they are quite similar. Both were born in the 1930s, both started their working lives as newspaper reporters, both made dazzling breakthroughs into fame in the mid-1960s (Wolfe with The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby, Stoppard with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead), both are fairly conservative politically, both have kept basically the same trademark look since the 1960s (white suit v. Rolling Stones hairdo), both spend a lot of money on their personal clothes and furnishings, and both have enjoyed quite long and successful careers. Both were substantially influenced by Evelyn Waugh. The personality differences between them in their writing style are subtle: Wolfe is more satirical, Stoppard more parodical.
So, they make a fun and fair comparison for this question: Judging from their published works, can you guess which one never attended a day of college and which one earned a doctorate from a world-famous university? Which one’s Dr. Tom?
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