Week Three of Class in The Sixties
Prof. Doherty: The New Journalism

The primary reading for this week is chapter VI, "The Bus" from Tom Wolfe, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. NY: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 1968 (Click on "The Bus (above) for the reading).

Photo of the bus (or maybe a recreation). Iconic symbol of the Grateful Dead Ken Kesey, Leader of the Merry Pranksters Cover of the Book

Some examples of New Journalism, bsides the work of Tom Wolfe, would be books like Truman Capote's In Cold Blood, George Plimpton's sports reporting, like the book Paper Lion (when the skinny reporter joined a professional American football team), Hunter S. Thompson's work (the "fear and loathing" series) non-fiction by Norman Mailer, Gay Taldese, Joan Didion, etc.

Here's an interesting clip of Hunter S. Thompson and a Hell's Angel on a talk show. You get an idea of his style at the end. Also, a series of quotes from various works.

Here's a 1973 New York Times review article on an anthology of The New Journalism compiled by Wolfe.