Wolff shares journey “to move back in from out”

Introduced as “the master of the short story and the memoir,” Tobias Wolff spoke last night to… Introduced as “the master of the short story and the memoir,” Tobias Wolff spoke last night to a full house at the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland.

Wolff, currently a teacher of creative writing at Stanford University, is renowned for his 1989 memoir of his childhood, “This Boy’s Life,” which was made into a feature film starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert DeNiro and Ellen Barkin. In November 2003 he published his first novel, “Old School.”

He began his address to the audience saying, “Tonight I will meditate the relationship of life and of art.”

In his lifetime as a writer, Wolff said he has found a connection between his own experiences and his writing dating back to his childhood. Accordingly, he would always read works by writers who had extracted from their personal experiences.

Ernest Hemingway, in particular, became the center of his passion for both writing and reading as a child. Wolff began imitating his “hypnotic style.”

“Imitation is the way we learn everything,” he said. “You copy to learn, to internalize.”

Leo Tolstoy had a similar effect on him. While reading “War and Peace,” and “Anna Karenina,” Wolff saw a certain realness in Tolstoy’s characters. The great Russian writer’s diary proved to him that the characters had been brought to life by Tolstoy’s own experiences.

“You can see Tolstoy using his fiction to save himself,” Wolff said.

These two writers were at the forefront of Wolff’s memories. He said they “encouraged [him] to move back in from out,” and develop the style that eventually became prominent in his stories and memoirs.

Under the influence of these writers, Wolff began the writing of his most popular work, “This Boy’s Life.” He initially wrote the memoir so his children would have a sense of his childhood and his relationship with his mother. He described the work as “A singular take on life,” recognizing its biases but also noting their importance to the story as a whole.

At the age of 15, Wolff received a scholarship to the Hill School in Pottstown, Pa. He was shipped across the country from his hometown in Washington state to shape his love for writing at a vocational school. This experience provided the basis for his most recent novel, “Old School.”

He said the feelings he experienced upon entering this new world were never forgotten.

“I wanted to pay tribute to a positive school experience and everything I learned there,” he said.

The main question he hoped to address, through the fictional working-class boy in “Old School” was “How do we get to be who we are?” and to recognize the past in conjunction with the future.

“Your history is always watching you change,” he said. “You develop a cumulative sense of doubleness.”

Preceding a thunderous applause, Wolff quoted T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets” in closing.

“And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time,” he said.