Whole Earth contributor Lloyd Kahn walks us through a rare first edition of the iconic catalog

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/18/whole-earth-contributor-lloyd.html

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Also, for people interested in the connections between the 60s counterculture and libertarian cyberculture, this book is invaluable:

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I ended up with two copies, mediocre condition, of the 1971 Last Whole Earth Catalog. There were a LOT of copies of that; I think I ran into a 1970 edition once.

Leafing through the LWEC as a kid was a mind-blower.

It . . . it is kind of painful now, because it is redolent of an idealism that is long gone from our society.

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I’ve got to ask: is this thing related to Granny Weatherwax’ Almanac?

SCNR.

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A re-print could be great… a facsimile or an annotated edition.

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The Last Supplement To the Whole Earth Catalogue, with cover by Crumb.

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give a man a nickle bag, he’s high for an afternoon, give a man a Whole Earth catalog, he’s hogh for a lifetime…

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I’m very disappointed my dad got rid of his copy in his last move. At the time back in the day my dad would have been the squarest square alive, which is what I love about that particular cultural crossroads that the Whole Earth catalog represented. Back to earth hippies, 60s counterculture, self-sufficiency libertarian types, and my dad, just because he had been a farmer and liked camping.

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Never heard of it. Find it neat, though.

Here is a PDF of the 1968 book if one is interested what is inside.

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Shortly after it began publication, the Whole Earth Catalogue inspired Whole Earth Provision, sort of a proto-REI and an Austin institution still chugging along in an old unassuming on South Lamar Blvd.

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Good strategy.
Could make a good school motto, too.

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The Whole Earth catalog, and the Loompanics catalog. Bookends to what America could have been.

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