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Does anybody also remember the Loompanics [1] book catalog? After the Last Whole Earth Catalog went away, I found even browsing through the titles in Loompanics a mind-altering experience. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loompanics
In one of the many biographies of Steve Jobs I've read since, he remarked that he read every word of it when it came out. He was 13 years old at the time.
Whatever else the Energy Crisis may mean, one thing is certain, prices of everything will continue to rise. When the economy is berserk the sane citizen will participate minimally. For city dwellers this is the best book on acquiring that skill. Living Poor and Living with Style are far from a contradiction in terms both consist of a loving (slightly detached) attention to detail. Here are 600 pages of intelligent detail for $1.95."
I never grew up knowing the Whole Earth Catalog, but in the early '80s I was a precocious elementary school student who practically lived in any library I could get access to. My school library happened to have a copy of a particularly magical book that was loosely patterned after the WEC, the "Kids' Whole Future Catalog". https://paleofuture.com/blog/2007/4/27/the-kids-whole-future... I obsessively checked it out of…
I'd love to see it. I had a set of similar books I would pore through as a child like 'Future Cities'[1]. I think it might have been part of a series as well. There was also this big thick book from Readers Digest that had all kinds of things you could build Model boats and Planes (among other things). It's not the 'Crafts and Hobbies' one that's on the internet archive, but it was similar. [1]: https://2warpstoneptu…
https://bookreviewers.online/2018/07/17/things-to-make-and-d...
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stay hungry. stay foolish. steve jobs commencement speech at stanford univ 2005.
also Whole Earth Catalog farewell words
And the video of Steve's talk was shared with me soon after it happened, by an older relative, who, ironically, was a top exec at a very large company, which was kind of the antithesis of what Steve was advocating that day.
https://youtu.be/UF8uR6Z6KLc?si=vk4WlUG5XkCANpXN
At around 13m10s.
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It was a mail order catalog for back to land communards.
It was never really a mail order catalog in the sense that there was no single place to order the stuff (the Whole Earth store did open later, but it just a slice of what appeared in the WEC and CoEvolution Quarterly). It was, as others have noted, reviews of "good stuff" and info on how (maybe) to get it.
A ton of items also say "OR Whole Earth Catalog" which I think implies you could send the money to WEC and they would make the order for you?
I grew up on Whole Earth Catalog (and Ted Nelson's Computer Lib / Dream Machines, another great counterculture publication of the era). Certainly opened up entire worlds of possibility.
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It was never really a mail order catalog in the sense that there was no single place to order the stuff (the Whole Earth store did open later, but it just a slice of what appeared in the WEC and CoEvolution Quarterly). It was, as others have noted, reviews of "good stuff" and info on how (maybe) to get it.
Maybe they didn't maintain their own inventory, but it pretty clearly gives you contact info and pricing for ordering all the various products. A ton of items also say "OR Whole Earth Catalog" which I think implies you could send the money to WEC and they would make the order for you?
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Talking about paving paradise, Kepler's is now a huge multi-story store. Several decades ago I looked in vain for even a little table or shelf with leading-edge counter-culture literature. Couldn't find anything resembling that.
> Talking about paving paradise, Kepler's is now a huge multi-story store. Unless there's another book store called Kepler's I'm not familiar with, it isn't. The building is multiple stories, but Kepler's is only on the first floor (and even there, it isn't the only tenant). The upper stories are unrelated office space.