Whole Earth Catalog

[hunter63]

I'm dating my self but was doing some poking around....came across some reference to the Whole Earth Catalog.
Called Access to Tools....

This book was a favorite reference in my younger years...as it listed and reviewed all sorts of homesteading and alternate references ......

Called the "Google of the day in paperback"
Quote by Steve Jobs >
Steve Jobs compared The Whole Earth Catalog to Internet search engine Google in his June 2005 Stanford University commencement speech. "When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation.... It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along. It was idealistic and overflowing with neat tools and great notions." During the commencement speech, Jobs also quoted the farewell message placed on the back cover of the 1974 edition of the Catalog: "Stay hungry. Stay foolish."[6][7][8]


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Any one else remember this and use it?

[natertot]

First time I have ever heard of it, much less saw it. Sounds like an interesting thing to check out. $3 back in 1970 seems like a pretty hefty price. I suppose not since it was a quarterly publication. How big was it? What kind of stuff was in it? (Now my curiosity is getting me!)

[DSJohnson]

Absolutely..I still have mine!

[hunter63]

Mine is in a annual type "big paper back format".....and later got the "Last Whole Earth Catolog"
I guess I forgot the link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_Earth_Catalog

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/whole-earth-catalog

Also has a running story of "Divine Right" Davenport road trip (short story)....remember this was in the 70's

This is where I found out about the "How to Keep your Volkswagen Alive....."....used it for years (still have it) and is the best written manual I have ever seen.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/How-to-Keep-...EAAOxy3HJTJXYS

[randyt]

Have or had a copy, not sure where it is now. the volkswagen comment brought back memories. My father ran volkswagens for years. He had buses and bugs.

[hunter63]

We raced Formula "V"'s and a Karman Ghia......Rebuilt many motors with the "Idiot Book......."

One mistake we found in the early additions, was the instruction, on how to install the distributor drive, was the notches/slots were 180 degrees off, so it wouldn't run unless you pulled it out, turned the drive around 180 degrees, and stuck it back in.

You could take that book, follow the directions.... and rebuild a VW motor , no problem....
Had to love a manual that included a stocking cap in the tool box,.... assuming everyone had long hair back in 1968....LOL

[randyt]

My dad didn't race, he figured gas was too much money and was into small cars. We had a 3 cylinder saab that took oil in the gas on every fill up. In the early 1990s he sold three good engines, a few axles and floor pans , a old bus and some new rebuild parts for a hundred bucks. I think it was too cheap.

[hunter63]

It was....even in the 70's that was too cheap.....
Formula V used a 1200 cc VW motor made from '54 to '61
We once got a brand new crate VW 1200 cc ......Like a 40 hp but was an industrial version in a actual crate....direct from the VW Distributor in Des Plaines IL.
Paid $300 bucks complete....NIB.
Made to run at low RMP for pumps and generators etc....had a real flat lobed cam....Had to change that.

There were crushing them to make room for the water cooled Rabbit motors......

Should have taken out a loan and bought all they had......(a lot)....I would be retired today.... Oh wait I am retired...Well, retired early...Oh wait, I did retire early.....Yeah, well you get the idea.

Anyway had all the new style oil galleries and such of the newer 1300, 1500, 1600, 1700 CC....What a find.....

[LowKey]

We had one of those WECs kicking around the house for years. the 'rents were into the back-to-the-land thing. I remember the cover and it hanging out of the bookcase sideways on top of the encyclopedia set, but I actually don't remember ever reading through it. They remodeled the house sometime in the late 80s and never saw it again, though I still have that old set of encyclopedia books.

[Faiaoga]

The Whole Earth Catalog was (is) cool and groovy. I think it was at least one of the ancestors of other useful manuals such as Where There Is No Doctor and many Oxfam and other references, Some people are turned off by the "hippy" flavor but Cody Lundin seems to have written a useful disaster survival guide along the same lines. In the Pacific region, there is a Liklik Buk published in Papua New Guinea that shows simple, useful technology (such as how to cast a water seal toilet from concrete) that has been distributed for village use. People may criticize the writing and illustrations, but the information can be solid. Thanks for the reminder; I hope it can now be accessed online

The Wikipedia article on this is good and provides some links and contacts

[hunter63]

Found a 63 page PFD of it....but you are gonna have to copy the down load location from Google

[Faiaoga]

Found a 63 page PFD of it....but you are gonna have to copy the down load location from Google

Righteous, man, like wow.......I can dig it. It seems that old print copies are still kicking around from used book dealers but you have to pay high prices for them. It is interesting that some of the sources and some of the gear recommended by Stewart Brand and his group are still around and are still useful today. REI and L L Bean still are relevant, though there is now a trend to have useful tools and clothing jacked up in price and sold as "wilderness survival zombie apocalypse" equipment. A close reading of the WEC will show they recommended knives and such that were "tools, not weapons" and they did not condemn firearms used to gather food.

I am interested to see that there is a big interest now in some of the topics of the Whole Earth Catalog, but I am not so glad to see all the hype and commercialization of television and the internet related to outdoor pursuits that we have today.

I was just reading a review that stated the Whole Earth Catalog "put a Swiss Army Knife in the pocket of every hippy"......not a bad legacy.

[hunter63]

I was just reading a review that stated the Whole Earth Catalog "put a Swiss Army Knife in the pocket of every hippy"......not a bad legacy.

Did for me....LOL....and was quite a story how I got my first SAK.....

Traveling to Hendersonville, NC to visit the Mother Earth News Eco-Village in 1982 and Knoxville World Fair....
Was camping at the MEN Eco-Village....ask my boy to hang up the clothes line...and he was screwing around....didn't do it.
So when I climbed the little ladder into the tree to hang the line....found a SAK hanging in the tree by a lanyard.......

Boy says "Hey, can I have that....?
Told him, "No if you would have done what I ask you to...you would have found it....."

Really kinda needed it as I had burned the blade on my pocket knife jumping the starter, on my VW when it wouldn't start up on the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Been thru about 4 or 5 SAK's since then....after retiring the one I found at MEN Village.

[Faiaoga]

Did you ever go back to check that tree again? Maybe it sprouts new knives every so often

[hunter63]

Now....was just there for a week......but now that you mention it.......a SAK tree....wow, man, Far out....

Also got involved with the "Shelter" books...By Lloyd Kauhn


http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shel...clickid=3x2810
Thru WEC....

Also the Dome Book 1 and 2

http://www.domerama.com/dome-basics/domebook-1-2/

Was really researching cabin, earth ships, and other alternate housing at the time....

[tundrabadger]

My mom used to have a copy of the WEC. I remember reading it when I was in grade 9 or so. No idea where it is now...I guess she probably got rid of it when she retired and moved south. Upside, though, I managed to liberate her copies of the Woodstock Crafstman's Manual and the Tassajara bread book when I left home to go to school, and I still have them today