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 <i>magical</i> book that was loosely patterned after the WEC, the "Kids' Whole Future Catalog". <a href="https://paleofuture.com/blog/2007/4/27/the-kids-whole-future-catalog-1982.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://paleofuture.com/blog/2007/4/27/the-kids-whole-future...</a><p>I obsessively checked it out of the library, pouring over page after page of exciting future and near future advancements, and in my little mind seeing a clear path from the Space Shuttle to the city of the future printed on the cover. It was one of those breathless books that showed humanity figuring out how to engineer every natural process, picture upon picture of far off space stations intermingled with then current hydroponics gardens and concepts well beyond that.<p>I found myself competing with at least one other child and the book never hit the shelf but for a few minutes as it was almost on permanent loan in somebody's backpack. My mother looked for a few weeks trying to find where to buy it for me, but never found a bookstore with it. It was like an object sent from another dimension, mean to teach children and guide them to an inevitable future Utopia.<p>It worked. I've worked in technology and R&D my entire career. I've <i>yearned</i> to bring about that future.<p>A few years ago, thinking back to this formative codex, I went about trying to find it and happened to buy a copy on Ebay which set about a small project to get the equipment together to scan it and put it up on the internet archive as no digital version of the book exists to my knowledge. I'm <i>almost</i> there, but haven't quite gotten everything lined up.<p>Many years later, I learned about the WEC and it immediately hit me that <i>this</i> was the adult version of the feeder league I had been participating in as a child.<p>I can't believe the WEC is out there now. I need to get my crap together and get the Kid's Catalog up as well.
Related article: The Whole of the Whole Earth Catalog Is Now Online - <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/whole-earth-catalog-now-online-internet-archive/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://www.wired.com/story/whole-earth-catalog-now-online-i...</a><p>---<p>I wonder if there's a torrent download of the entire archive.. Looks like this is pretty close:<p>The Internet Archive's Whole Earth collection (98.5 GB) - <a href="https://archive.org/details/wholeearth" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://archive.org/details/wholeearth</a>
During 1968 through 1972 I lived a block and a half from Stewart Brand's Whole Earth Truck store, across the street from Kepler's Bookstore, and around the corner from the Mid Peninsula Free University. There hasn't been a time like that since, and I didn't know what I had until it was gone.
More relevant today than when this was published in 1986
<a href="https://archive.org/download/wholeearthreview00unse_8/page/n11_w500.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://archive.org/download/wholeearthreview00unse_8/page/n...</a>
Whole Earth Catalog and Fox Fire books were like maker bibles for me when I was a kid. Nothing quite compares to them now days. Fox Fire books in particular were non-commercial (from my memory) and full of really interesting skills and information. They were the maker movement before it was a (tech/online) thing.
I read every single word of this catalog starting the day it was released in 1968, just after I turned 20.<p>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.
If you're looking for a quick link, it's at <a href="https://wholeearth.info/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://wholeearth.info/</a>
About time! For years I would try to visit the Whole Earth website and be met with a barrage of PHP errors. How could a magazine which was so formative for the likes of Steve Jobs be so broke that they couldn't put their archive online properly? Still don't get what happened but happy to see someone's sorted this out.
"Living Poor With Style<p>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."
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.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loompanics" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loompanics</a>
Nice resource, but it desperately needs an index or full-text search feature.<p>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.
While this is amazing, I wonder if there is any modern print book series or magazine series that comes close. I'd love to share this with my kids, but digital format is not ideal. Any suggestions (in EN but also any other major European languages in my case).
Nice job Barry!!!! I love it when I fall out of touch with friends for about a decade, then hear of them in headlines. Man, that was a fun party (2008).
Link to the actual catalog: <a href="https://wholeearth.info/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://wholeearth.info/</a><p>In a lot of ways, it seems our simulation truly began in 1970.
These magazines were beautiful. It's a shame that little on the web can compete with them on that front. The Deoxyribonucleic Hyperdimension was a fair crack, when it first came out, but that analogue look, with real human artwork is loads better.
A paywall on an article about something being available for free.<p>How cute, heh.<p>The current state of online publishing paints a grim picture for the future of the internet :o(
I didn't realize it was so commercial. It's just advertisements for hippie? So you can engage in consumerism and still feel good about yourself?<p>The Whole Earth Magazine seems much more interesting than the Catalog
> The Whole Earth Catalog preached self-reliance, teaching young baby boomers how to build their own cabins, garden sheds, and geodesic domes after they had turned on, tuned in, and dropped out—well before they grew wealthy enough to buy up all the three-bedroom single-family homes.<p>What a great punch line. Worth reading the whole article.