Tom Wolfe, Pyrotechnic ‘New Journalist’ and Novelist, Dies at 88

Tom Wolfe, an innovative journalist and novelist whose Technicolor, wildly punctuated prose brought to life the worlds of California surfers, car customizers, astronauts and Manhattan's monied status-seekers in works like "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby," "The Right Stuff" and "Bonfire of the Vanities," died Monday in a New York City hospital. He was 87.