The Pump House Gang
Encyclopedia
The Pump House Gang is a 1968 collection of essays and journalism by Tom Wolfe
. The stories in the book explored various aspects of the counterculture of the 1960s
. The most famous story in the collection, from which the book takes its name, is about Jack Macpherson
and his gang of surfers that frequented a sewage pump house at Windansea Beach
in La Jolla, California
.
, Wolfe's story about the LSD
-fueled adventures of Ken Kesey
and the Merry Pranksters
. They were Wolfe's first books since The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
in 1965 which, like The Pump House Gang, was a collection of Wolfe's non-fiction essays.
Though both books were well received and would go on to become best-sellers, of the two The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was heralded as an instant classic and would become the better-known of the two books.
, the founder of Playboy Magazine (who Wolfe famously compared to The Great Gatsby
); Carol Doda
, a stripper who helped popularize breast-implants; and the surfers of the pump house.
Other subjects Wolfe profiles in the book include actress Natalie Wood
, the New York Hilton, the visionary media-theorist Marshall McLuhan
and various socialite
s of New York. The essays collectively tell the story of the new status symbols and lifestyles of the 1960s and how the culture was changing from the traditional social hierarchies of the time. The success of the book cemented Wolfe as one of his generation's most prominent social critics.
that Wolfe and other writers like Joan Didion
and Gay Talese
helped to popularize. According to Time Magazine's review of Wolfe's book:
Wolfe's style was simultaneously mocked and widely imitated. In 1990 the Los Angeles Times
interviewed many of the surfers who had been involved with the pump house gang. Some of the surfers claimed that Wolfe took liberties with the facts to embellish and mythologize the lifestyle of the surfers. Other members of the pump house gang believe Wolfe's characterizations were correct.
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
. The stories in the book explored various aspects of the counterculture of the 1960s
Counterculture of the 1960s
The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...
. The most famous story in the collection, from which the book takes its name, is about Jack Macpherson
Jack Macpherson
John Duncan "Jack" Macpherson III was a former mailman and bartender in La Jolla, California. According to his Los Angeles Times obituary, he was a local legend who acquired "a permanent niche in the history of Southern California beach culture".Macpherson was born in La Jolla, the oldest of two...
and his gang of surfers that frequented a sewage pump house at Windansea Beach
Windansea Beach
Windansea Beach is stretch of coastline located in La Jolla, a community of San Diego, California. The neighborhood adjacent to the beach is named Windansea after the beach. It is named after an oceanfront hotel that burned down in the late 1940s...
in La Jolla, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Publication
The Pump House Gang was published on the same day in 1968 as The Electric Kool-Aid Acid TestThe Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is a work of literary journalism by Tom Wolfe, published in 1968. Using techniques from the genre of hysterical realism and pioneering new journalism, the "nonfiction novel" tells the story of Ken Kesey and his band of Merry Pranksters...
, Wolfe's story about the LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
-fueled adventures of Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey
Kenneth Elton "Ken" Kesey was an American author, best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , and as a counter-cultural figure who considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a...
and the Merry Pranksters
Merry Pranksters
The Merry Pranksters were a group of people who formed around American author Ken Kesey in 1964 and sometimes lived communally at his homes in California and Oregon...
. They were Wolfe's first books since The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby
The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby is the title of Tom Wolfe's first collected book of essays, published in 1965...
in 1965 which, like The Pump House Gang, was a collection of Wolfe's non-fiction essays.
Though both books were well received and would go on to become best-sellers, of the two The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test was heralded as an instant classic and would become the better-known of the two books.
Writing
All but two of the stories in the book were written in 1965 and 1966, during the ten months after the publication of The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamiline Baby. During this period Wolfe spent extensive time with many of his subjects, including Hugh HefnerHugh Hefner
Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...
, the founder of Playboy Magazine (who Wolfe famously compared to The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby is a novel by the American author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published in1925, it is set on Long Island's North Shore and in New York City from spring to autumn of 1922....
); Carol Doda
Carol Doda
Carol Ann Doda was a topless stripper in San Francisco, California in the 1960s through 1980s, one of the first of the era....
, a stripper who helped popularize breast-implants; and the surfers of the pump house.
Other subjects Wolfe profiles in the book include actress Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood
Natalie Wood, born Natalia Nikolaevna Zacharenko was an American film and television actress. After first working in films as a child, Wood became a successful Hollywood star as a young adult, receiving three Academy Award nominations before she was 25 years old.Wood began acting in movies at the...
, the New York Hilton, the visionary media-theorist Marshall McLuhan
Marshall McLuhan
Herbert Marshall McLuhan, CC was a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar—a professor of English literature, a literary critic, a rhetorician, and a communication theorist...
and various socialite
Socialite
A socialite is a person who participates in social activities and spends a significant amount of time entertaining and being entertained at fashionable upper-class events....
s of New York. The essays collectively tell the story of the new status symbols and lifestyles of the 1960s and how the culture was changing from the traditional social hierarchies of the time. The success of the book cemented Wolfe as one of his generation's most prominent social critics.
Style
The stories in The Pump House Gang are written in the style of New JournalismNew Journalism
New Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...
that Wolfe and other writers like Joan Didion
Joan Didion
Joan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
and Gay Talese
Gay Talese
Gay Talese is an American author. He wrote for The New York Times in the early 1960s and helped to define literary journalism...
helped to popularize. According to Time Magazine's review of Wolfe's book:
He uses a language that explodes with comic-book words like "POW!" and "boing." His sentences are shot with ellipses, stabbed with exclamation points, or bombarded with long lists of brand names and anatomical terms. He is irritating, but he did develop a new journalistic idiom that has brought relief from standard Middle-High Journalese.
Wolfe's style was simultaneously mocked and widely imitated. In 1990 the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
interviewed many of the surfers who had been involved with the pump house gang. Some of the surfers claimed that Wolfe took liberties with the facts to embellish and mythologize the lifestyle of the surfers. Other members of the pump house gang believe Wolfe's characterizations were correct.
Contents
The Pump House Gang contains 15 stories:- The Pump House Gang
- The Mid-Atlantic Man
- King of the Status Dropouts
- The Put-Together Girl
- The Noonday Underground
- The Shockkkkkk of Recognition
- The Hair Boys
- What If He Is Right?
- Bob and Spike
- Tom Wolfe's New Book of Etiquette
- The Life & Hard Times of a Teenage London Society Girl
- The Private Game
- The Automated Hotel
- The Mild Ones
- O Rotten Gotham—Sliding Down into the Behavioral Sink