Published in 1929, Look Homeward, Angel was in many ways the story of Wolfe’s own life, and it was connected to the region, family, and friends of his childhood in Asheville. Due to the distinct details and parallels in the novel and Wolfe’s childhood, many in Asheville were irate because of Wolfe’s sometimes harsh descriptions. Look Homeward was even banned from the Asheville public library, and Wolfe could not return to his hometown nearly seven years after the novel’s publication. The exile that Wolfe faced provided even more inspiration and his novel, You Can’t Go Home Again (1940), was influenced by the troubles Wolfe faced after Look Homeward. Wolfe returned in 1937, and he later wrote in his defense of his novel, entitled The Story of a Novel (1936), “that the people he described, whatever their faults, were magnificent.”
Wolfe spent much time in Europe and was especially popular and at ease in Germany, where he made many friends. However, in 1936 he witnessed incidents of discrimination against the Jews, which upset him and changed his mind about the political developments in the country.[20] He returned to America and published a story based on his observations ("I Have a Thing to Tell You") in The New Republic.[20] Following its publication, Wolfe's books were banned by the German government, and he was prohibited from traveling there