The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968)
.This is the book that put Tom Wolfe on the map. His second book follows author Ken Kesey and his followers, the Merry Pranksters, who trekked across American in a painted schoolbus. Along the way, the Pranksters encounter The Grateful Dead, the Hells Angels, and Allen Ginsberg, all while dropping LSD and expanding their consciousness. It's a seminal text in the New Journalism movement, an essential look at the '60s counterculture.
The Right Stuff (1979)
.Wolfe chronicles the Mercury Seven, the group of astronauts plucked by NASA to man the first American space program. Weaving personal stories of the astronauts and test pilots with political history, Wolfe presents the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union in a character-driven, novelistic approach. The book would later be made into the 1983 Oscar-winning film.
The Bonfire of the Vanities (1987)
.Despite being known primarily for his nonfiction work, Wolfe wrote four novels during his career—and his 1987 fiction debut is without a doubt his best. This satirical novel follows a Wall Street trader whose life spirals out of control. Taking a Dickensian approach to a modern city in chaos, Wolfe's scathing look at class and social politics in 1980s Manhattan remains one of the essential novels of the decade.
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Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers (1970)
.Wolfe's fourth book is comprised of two long pieces—the first of which looks at a gathering held at composer Leonard Bernstein's Park Avenue apartment. There Bernstein and some of New York's liberal elite entertained members of the Black Panther party, with Wolfe offering his own criticism of what he labeled "radical chic": the fashion of liberal outrage that overshadows liberal ignorance and ineffectuality.
The Painted Word (1975)
.Wolfe's 1970 collection truly speaks not only to the writer's talent, but also his fame and prestige. Imagine anyone else attempting to publish a mainstream book of art criticism. Wolfe's attempt may have ruffled more feathers in the art world than earn him credibility as an art critic—the essays mostly launch attacks at the popular modern artists of the time—but there's something to be said for a writer willing to fall on his sword in order to get people talking about art.
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