In several public appearances from that time, Wolfe speaks amusingly of the cult of “leverage,” i.e., borrowing money, that emerged during the go-go ’80s (of which Wolfe remains our best chronicler) and hints that he himself was not immune. As I have mentioned elsewhere, I got to know Tom Wolfe a bit. Anyway, none of this being definitive, as I read Rosen claiming that Wolfe “never borrowed money,” my heart sank. Which is ironic, because the subject of the piece is money, specifically, Tom Wolfe’s relationship thereto. The fact that Tom Wolfe managed to do it as a writer, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries no less, as scribbling became less and less remunerative, is simply astonishing.