WOLFE, Tom “Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” [Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970]

WOLFE, Tom. Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers.

New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1970. First edition, first printing. 8vo. Signed by Wolfe on the half-title. Publisher’s black cloth-backed patterned boards; original illustrated dust jacket designed by Pat de Groot. Light toning to page edges and faint handling to boards; jacket lightly rubbed with mild edge wear and a small stain to lower front panel. Near Fine.

This volume collects two of Wolfe’s most famous long-form pieces of New Journalism. “Radical Chic” recounts the widely publicized 1970 fundraising gathering hosted by Leonard Bernstein for members of the Black Panther Party, examining the intersection of elite Manhattan society and radical politics. “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” satirically documents confrontations between activist groups and San Francisco bureaucrats administering anti-poverty programs. Together the essays helped popularize the term “radical chic” and stand as emblematic works of the immersive, literary style that defined the New Journalism movement of the late twentieth century.