The Daily Bulletin

Thomas J. Reigstad, professor emeritus of English, published his article “Sloan Wilson: Buffalo’s Own Man in the Gray Flannel Suit” in the winter 2024 issue of Western New York Heritage magazine, Western New York’s illustrated history quarterly 26 (4): 6–15. The article tells how Wilson composed his bestselling 1955 novel, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, while serving as head of public relations at the University of Buffalo, at the time a private university. Dr. Reigstad contacted Wilson’s children for insights, researched the Buffalo State Courier-Express Collection in E. H. Butler Library’s Archives and Special Collections as well as UB’s University Archives; visited the sites of Wilson’s former home in Snyder and the former Main Street tavern Bitterman’s Grill (settings where he did most of his drafting and revising); and examined the novel’s original manuscripts in the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s Rare Book Room to describe for the first time Wilson’s writing process and his longstanding affection for Buffalo.