The Whole Earth Catalog Now Online

in Books | January 10th, 2009 14 Comments

Between 1968 and 1972, Stewart Brand published The Whole Earth Catalog. For Kevin Kelly, the Catalog was essentially “a paper-based database offering thousands of hacks, tips, tools, suggestions, and possibilities for optimizing your life.” For Steve Jobs, it was a “Bible” of his generation, a kind of Google 35 years before Google came along. (On a side note, I highly recommend the commencement speech where Jobs made those comments.) The very good news is that The Whole Earth Catalog and some related publications are now available online. You can read them for free, or download them for a fee. Start delving into things here.

While we’re on this subject, I should also highlight a project that has more recently occupied Stewart Brand’s time.  The Seminars About Long Term Thinking is a monthly speaking series hosted by Brand and organized by the Long Now Foundation, which hopes to provide a counterpoint to today’s “faster/cheaper” mind set and to promote “slower/better” thinking. You can access the thought-provoking seminars as a podcast (iTunes - Feed - Web Site) and otherwise find it hosted in our Ideas & Culture Podcast Collection. Have a good weekend.

via Boing Boing


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  • http://rsaartsandecology.org.uk William Shaw

    “In the beginning, Stewart Brand created the Whole Earth Catalog. And the earth was without the web, google or blogging (which the Whole Earth Catalog is credited with inspiring). Steve Jobs described it as “an amazing publication… 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”. ” Emma Ridgeway on Arts & Ecology blog at http://mtblog.typepad.com/arts_ecology

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  • alvin aguirre

    in the cold war days and no pc’s the catalog became the guardian of technology.

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  • Mike Gerald

    I am seeking to obtain a copy of an article in WEC written by noteworthy playright Ken Kesey about a visit to the
    Sutro Tunnel Saloon in Nevada. It was supposedly in the “first supplement” to
    WEC but I don’t see supplements listed as
    that, and perhaps it is included in #1050
    with the Kesey bus race bits? I would be
    very grateful to obtain such a copy.
    Mike Gerald

  • http://thewholeearthcatalog opolot david vincent

    Wondering what the whole earth catalog is about but I am interested in the hacks, tips, tools, suggestions and possibilities for optimizing life.
    david vincent.

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  • Connie Cook

    I have a 1972 edition of the Last Whole Earth Catalog. It is in very very good condition. If anyone is interested in the catalog please feel free to contact me through e-mail. It is the most interesting catalog ever published. Steve Jobs was right it was the Google of our time.

  • http://www.heapider-concern.org;www.wahooas.org Assoc. Prof. P.Tarpowah Kear, Jr.

    I would be very grateful, if you could (where possible) kindly send me either a hard copy or electronic copy of the Whole Earth Catalogue.

    I could be reached, by posts, at the address:

    Assoc. Prof. P. Tarpowah Kear, Jr.
    Professional Officer for Pharmacy
    Dept. of Human Resources for Health Development
    West African Health Organsation (WAHO)
    175 Ave. Ouezzin Coulibaly
    01 BP 153 BOBO-DIOULASSO 01
    Burkina Faso

  • Harlan Howard

    Im fascinated with what it contains please send electronic copy

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