The legendary publications of the Whole Earth Catalogs — all 20,000 pages — are now available for free online at the Whole Earth Index.
These hi-res scans are almost better than the original newsprinted ones.
They are a breeze to browse and navigate, and on a large monitor, very easy to read.
First published in the 1970s and 1980s, these pages were the internet before the internet.
The how-to books were pre-YouTube, and the article pre-web blogs.
Most of the content is still refreshingly informative today.
FunFact: When these came out I loved them. I dropped everything else so I could read the first giant versions cover to cover — every single tiny font word.
I read a few years ago that Steve Jobs did exactly the same thing (he was 13 years old when the first issue appeared in 1968).
Fast company!
[via Kevin Kelly and Recomendo]
https://wholeearth.info/
ReplyDeleteIf anyone hasn't read it (or even read it recently), I highly recommend "The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity" by Carlo M. Cipolla in the Whole Earth Review, Spring 1987. It's pretty much framed my reality since the day I read it.
ReplyDelete