Tom Wolfe, California, And The Twilight Of The Gonzos

Cover of the first U.S. edition

Hunter S. Thompson coined the phrase "Gonzo journalism" around 1970. The writing style presented stories written as much for entertainment as for traditional reportorial honesty and involved not only the writer's observation but also his participation. The first wave of Gonzos - a wing of New Journalism - is all but gone these days. It's most famous surviving member in the U.S. is Tom Wolfe, who will be 82 next year.   Wolfe's approach to writing has evolved over the years, but it has always retained muted elements of the "wildness" that made such journalism amazingly popular into the 1990s. And it's no wonder that the "wildness" began in California when he penned The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test in 1968. Although he would claim New York as "home" almost from that publication date, for the next fifty years he would come to write about the Golden State and its social brand that swept across the nation. Perhaps we are all California now. Regardless, Wolfe's long association with the "island" of California makes for some enjoyable reading in Michael Anton's article appearing in the Autumn issue of City Journal.

It isn't often that OTR can find two of his favorite subjects - Wolfe and California - in a single article. Enjoy.