Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test

One of the most essential works on the 1960s counterculture, Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Test ushered in an era of New Journalism.

An evergreen classic that broke open the possibilities of creative nonfiction, The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is Tom Wolfe’s seminal New Journalist portrait of a counterculture in formation and a nation undergoing constant flux.

Wolfe follows Ken Kesey, one of the most magnetic figures of the 1960s, as he travels America with his band of Merry Pranksters, experimenting with psychedelics, running into Hells Angels, and bridging the gap between 1950s Beats and a burgeoning hippie movement. 

With curious and energetic prose, Wolfe tells the story of a new age in American culture while forever expanding our understanding of what journalism might be.

"An astonishing book" (The New York Times Book Review) and an unflinching portrait of Ken Kesey, his Merry Pranksters, LSD, and the 1960s.

Author: Tom Wolfe
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page Count: 432pp
Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Notes: paperback
Edition: FSG 80th Anniversary Special Edition
Date of Publication: July 7, 2026
ISBN: 978-0374622381