A sprawling collection of essays about the subcultures of the 1960s by Tom Wolfe, the revolutionary journalist and novelist
When Tom Wolfe smashed his way onto the literary scene in 1965 with
The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
, he transformed reporting in American popular culture. For his next project, Wolfe traveled from La Jolla to London in search of new lifestyles. The result is
The Pump House Gang
(published simultaneously with
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
in 1968): a collection of essays that chronicles life at the end of the 1960s, written with all the panache and perceptiveness that made Wolfe one of our greatest American journalists.
Running throughout
is a central theme of Wolfe’s writing: status. In pieces about Hugh Hefner, Natalie Wood, and a gang of affluent teenage surfers, among others, Wolfe discusses the 1960s phenomenon of retreating from conventional social hierarchies, which he calls “starting your own league.” Dancers, motorcyclists, lumpen-dandies, and stay-at-homes—everybody’s doing it. Except for die-hards in the crumbling old social worlds of New York and London, where the confusion is so great that nobody can tell whether this is really the path to the top they’ve taken or just the service elevator.
Dazzlingly brilliant as a stylist, daringly provocative as a commentator, and always entertaining, in
, Wolfe is thoroughly, completely himself.