"ASTONISHING, ENLIGHTENING… EXPLOSIVELY FUNNY": FIRST EDITION OF ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST, WONDERFULLY INSCRIBED BY TOM WOLFE

WOLFE, Tom. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, (1968). Octavo, original white cloth, original dust jacket; housed in a custom clamshell box. $2500.

First edition of Wolfe's lively "celebration of psychedelia," a distinctive presentation copy boldly inscribed by him, with his characteristic flourishes, to his publisher, "For Marion Best wishes—and—Salutes! Tom Wolfe."

"The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test… is to the hippie movement what Norman Mailer's The Armies of the Night was to the Vietnam protest movement. Wolfe is precisely the right author to chronicle the transformation of Ken Kesey from respected author of And One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest to an LSD enthusiast, to the messianic leader of a mystical band of Merry Pranksters, to a fugitive from the FBI, California police and Mexican Federales. The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a celebration of psychedelia, of all its sounds and costumes, colors and fantasies… It is an astonishing, enlightening, at times baffling and explosively funny book" (New York Times). "An amazing book… that definitely gives Wolfe the edge on the non-fiction novel" (Village Voice). With "First Printing, 1968" on copyright page. Dust jacket designed by Milton Glaser. This copy is inscribed by Wolfe to his publisher at Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, Marion Hess.

Text fine with trace of edge-toning to cloth; corresponding minimal toning with scant edge-wear to colorful dust jacket. A handsome about-fine copy.