On Monday, Tom Wolfe, the American novelist and journalist, died at the age of 88.
Known for his flamboyant writing style and trademark white suits, Wolfe was one of the last survivors of a pioneering generation of reporters who transformed the landscape of US journalism in the 1960s and 1970s.
Their work fused the literary techniques of fiction with the more traditional aspects of hard-edged reporting to provide vivid portraits of an era that promised to change the world.
‘The New Journalism’, an anthology edited by Wolfe, features some of the finest examples of their writing.
Examining everything from the mind-bending effects of LSD to the optimism of the civil rights movement and the horrors of the Vietnam war, the book provides a unique snapshot of the period.
Writers included in ‘The New Journalism’ include Truman Capote, Hunter S. Thompson, Norman Mailer, Gay Talese and Joan Didion, as well as Wolfe himself.
Although their work is often mimicked today, very few contemporary reporters posses the talent and panache of this golden generation.
