Literary critics ranked him with Dickens, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Melville. His vibrant autobiographical novels Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River won Thomas Wolfe the admiration of his peers, and writers as various as Jack Kerouac, Norman Mailer, and Kurt Vonnegut have acknowledged a debt to him.   With extracts from his personal papers as well as trenchant reviews of his work and cogent assessments of his genius, this handsomely illustrated volume poignantly recounts the course of Wolfe's career and literary reputation.   Ted Mitchell is co-director of the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville, North Carolina, where he lives.