The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

A lot of the book focused very favorably on John Glenn. He focused on a couple of people and made them really famous. He also was very well-known for 'The Right Stuff,' which was a book about the first group of American astronauts, who were very glamorous figures at the time. NEARY: And it kind of made the idea of road trips and LSD sort of popular and cool also. So it was really a lot of people's introduction to the whole idea of LSD and the effect that LSD could have, the very fun effect it could have. And these were guys that were traveling around the country on a bus and experimenting with LSD. I think the first book that really he got - was well-known for was 'The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.' This was an account of he traveled with Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters. And he brought that sensibility to his books as well. NEARY: He would have a million followers on social media. And I think for young people, they might understand if I say he would have had the coolest blog. And so he wrote in all of the major magazines of the day. Now, many have taken part in - have written this style. And he was one of a group of writers who helped to usher in the '60s with a new style of journalism that combined the eye of a journalist, the reporting skills of a journalist with a narrative style that was much closer identified at that time with fiction or with novels. NEARY: So that's one of the reasons you couldn't miss him. He had a three-piece white suit complete with tie and a hat, always. And you couldn't miss him in publishing circles and in literary circles. NEARY: He was absolutely an iconic figure. MARTIN: So it's hard to overstate Wolfe's presence in the literary world, wasn't it? Joining us now NPR books correspondent Lynn Neary.

He wrote best sellers like 'The Right Stuff' and 'Bonfire Of The Vanities.' We have learned this morning that Tom Wolfe died yesterday in New York City. Tom Wolfe created unforgettable stories about test pilots and hippies, bikers and the lost denizens of Wall Street.

The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe