Thomas Clayton Wolfe was born on October 3, 1900, in Asheville, North Carolina. He began his college education at the University of North Carolina, and with the intention of becoming a professional playwright, he enrolled at George Pierce Baker's Harvard University workshop. After three years at Harvard, Wolfe moved to New York City where he taught at NYU's Washington Square College. In addition to plays, he wrote short stories, novellas, and novels reflecting American culture in the 1920s and 1930s. Wolfe was known especially for his autobiographical style of writing in works such as Look Homeward, Angel (1929). From 1925 to 1929, he was romantically involved with set designer and costumer Aline Bernstein, and she served as the inspiration for Wolfe's character Esther Jack in the novels Of Time and the River (1935), The Web and the Rock (1939), and You Can't Go Home Again (1940). Wolfe died in Baltimore, MD, on September 15, 1938, at age 37, leaving many manuscripts that were published posthumously.

Aline Bernstein was born Hazel Frankau on December 22, 1882, in New York City. Orphaned at the age of 17, young Bernstein designed and sold greeting cards, hats, and dresses with her sister Ethel to support her family. She studied art at the School of Applied Design and under Robert Henri, a master painter of the Ashcan School. Bernstein began to invest her artistic talents in the world of theater by volunteering with the girls' dramatic club at the Henry Street Settlement House and later the Neighborhood Playhouse. From 1916 to 1951, she worked as a set designer and costumer for fifty-one productions. In 1926, Bernstein became the first female member of the AFL's designers' union. In the late 1920s, she had a romantic relationship with the playwright and novelist Thomas Wolfe, and in 1938, Bernstein published a novel about their friendship: The Journey Down. After a prolific career in theater, Bernstein passed away in New York on September 7, 1955, at the age of 74.