Tom Wolfe, RIP

I read today that Tom Wolfe, pioneer of the 'New Journalism', died yesterday at the age of 88. He was one of the major authors whose work I read during the formative years of 1971-8.

My first encounter with Wolfe's work was when I spent a long weekend at my friend Mimi's house in Stanmore, October 1971. We were walking around her neighbourhood when I spotted in a shop (a newsagent? not a book store, as far as I remember) a copy of Wolfe's "The electric kool-aid test"; the name was familiar as it had been mentioned in another book which I carried around at the time like a bible - "Awopbopaloobop" by Nik Cohn. Wolfe's book - along with others of his which I found here and there - accompanied me during my literary adolescence. 

The 'New Journalism' anthology affected me in a few ways: I tracked down several of the books which provided chapters in this book, through which I found Joan Didion and Michael Herr. I also tried adopting an NJ approach when I wrote a short article about the leader of our youth movement.

I have to admit that I haven't looked at Wolfe's work in years, although I still have the books on my shelf.

Edit: Singer Jarvis Cocker writes about Tom Wolfe, Ken Kesey and The Electric Kool-Aid test.