The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe tells the story of Ken Kasey and his followers—known as the Merry Pranksters—as they travel across the country in a school bus they named “Further.” Originally published in 1968, Wolfe followed them on their adventures, declining their offers of the ever-present LSD, in order to document their own drug-induced insights and revelations. In this classic work of literary journalism, Wolfe recounts the trip first-hand and documents the Pranksters’ experiences and their intellectual and spiritual insights.

Praise

"Some consider Mailer our greatest journalist; my candidate is Wolfe."—Studs Terkel, BookWeek

"Tom Wolfe is a groove and a gas. Everyone should send him money and other fine things. Hats off to Tom Wolfe!"—Terry Southern

"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is not simply the best book on the hippies, it is the book . . . the pushing, ballooning heart of the matter . . . Vibrating dazzle!"—Eliot Fremont-Smith, The New York Times

"A Day-Glo book; illuminating, merry, surreal!"—The Washington Post

"Among journalists, Wolfe is a geniune poet; what makes him so good is his ability to get inside, to not merely describe (although he is a superb reporter), but to get under the skin of a phenomenon and transmit its metabolic rhythm."—Newsweek

"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is an amazing book . . . A book that definitely gives Wolfe the edge on the non-fiction novel."—Village Voice

About the Author(s)

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe is the author of a dozen books, among them such contemporary classics as The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Right Stuff, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. He lives in New York City.

photo: Copyright Mark Seliger

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