Global Perspectives on Korean Literature by Wook-Dong Kim

Author:Wook-Dong Kim
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9789811387272
Publisher: Springer Singapore

It is little wonder that Wolfe’s huge physical features caught Kang’s eye. Generally speaking, Westerners are taller and heavier than Asians. Even compared to the average American, Wolfe had a gigantic frame. It is fairly well known that Wolfe was over 6 feet 6 inches tall. In particular, his hands were strikingly large. Kang’s wife, Frances Keely, who was a Wellesley graduate and writer, reminisced how she had noted his stature when Wolfe visited her small apartment at 5 Charles Street, New York City. As Frances stated, “There he was—towering and too tall for our tiny place. We had tiny furniture, but he was so big and tall. I didn’t know what to do, and I’d never forget the occasion because my coffee turned out terrible. He was sweet; he came and put up with us. He was fond of Younghill, he told me” (23). Although Frances was herself tall, Wolfe was far taller than she.

Wolfe’s encounter and subsequent friendship with Kang was indisputably serious and enduring. It turned out to be not a mere condescension, but gracious familiarity on Wolfe’s part. Later, Kang made it quite clear that in his first year at Washington Square College no teachers really cared for him, with the sole exception of Wolfe. In his biography of Wolfe, David Herbert Donald writes, “Wolfe virtually adopted Younghill Kang, the Korean-born writer who came to Washington Square College in 1929. ‘In my first year at NYU,’ Kang wrote, ‘nobody really cared for me except Tom’ ” (1987, 117; emphasis added). The word “adopt” has metaphorical, as well as literal, meanings. Wolfe regarded the orphan-like Kang as his protégé and mentor in many respects. The newly arrived immigrant Kang, on the other hand, considered the United States to which he emigrated via Canada his “adopted country.” He also deeply appreciated Wolfe’s “adoption” of him in this alien country.

After their first meeting, Wolfe, as Frances Keely remembered, often visited Kang’s apartment not only at 5 Charles Street but also at 10th Street. Kang, in turn, visited Wolfe’s apartment at 27 West 15th Street. Of Wolfe’s apartment, Kang stated, “There was hardly any furniture, just a bed and nothing to sit on. I sat on a junk bed, and we talked on and on about many things including Shakespeare , Milton, and modern authors” (Kwak 23). Since his college days at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Boston University, Kang was very fond of reciting Shakespeare’s soliloquies, particularly from Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet , even in his public lectures. Sometimes after their classes at Washington Square College, both Wolfe and Kang used to go to nearby Chinatown for Chinese food and drinks. According to Kang, Wolfe had a special liking for Chinese wine, most probably gaoliangjiu, a very strong liquor made from sorghum.

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