raw · articles · ingested 2026-05-13
History of the Whole Earth Catalog — Lloyd Kahn, Substack (Feb 10, 2025)
Source: https://lloydkahn.substack.com/p/history-of-the-whole-earth-catalog
Lloyd Kahn, Live From California (Substack), February 10, 2025
“There are periodic waves of interest in the Whole Earth Catalog. Lately, it seems as if millennials have sensed that things happening in the ’60s and ’70s were in tune with some of their present-day interests.”
Kahn describes walking into the Whole Earth Truck Store in Menlo Park, CA in early December (ca. 1967): “a semi-vacant storefront… no truck, no store, just an army-camouflage VW bus and Stewart and Lois Brand and a ton of books piled around in the back room.”
His reading list at the time (pre-WEC): “The Owner-Built Home, J.I.Rodale’s Organic Gardening & Farming Magazine, The Oracle, The East Village Other, The LA Free Press, The Dome Cookbook, The Green Revolution…”
On the Dome Cookbook’s role:
“To go back a bit further while still in this ‘credit-where-due’ mode, the Dome Cookbook by Steve Baer in early 1968 gave me the first flash of insight. By God, I could do a book like this! Funky typewritten text, grainy photos, handwritten afterthoughts in the margin—just do it!”
“Stewart was also obviously influenced by this 11″×14″ staple-bound account of Baer’s mathematics and the building of chopped-out car top domes in Colorado and New Mexico. It sold for $1. A break-through book of the ’60s.”
On the WEC:
“Stewart saved me the trouble. He had more information, a game plan, the financing, and went on to publish the first Whole Earth Catalog in fall ‘68.”
“It was an instant hit. Contributing to this were Stewart’s pithy haiku-like reviews, and very accurate and complete access information on all the books and items reviewed. And no advertising!”
On Domebook One and Two:
“At the WEC I learned about typesetting, design, editing, on-the-spot paste-up and dealing with printers. Stewart loaned me his production tools (including an IBM Composer) and in 1970 I published Domebook One and a year later Domebook 2, both with my friend Bob Easton, and found myself in the publishing business.”
“Domebook 2 sold 160,000 copies before I pulled it out of print because I had concluded domes did not work as homes. Since we had such a large audience thinking domes were the cool way to build, Bob Easton and I created Shelter in 1973, showing building methods and materials throughout history and all around the world.”
On the West Coast publishing revolution:
“When the Fall 1969 WEC sold 100,000 copies in four weeks, New York’s attention was got.”
“Agent Don Gerrard signed the WEC up with Random House, then under editor-in-chief Jim Silberman’s lead, and I followed with Domebook 2, starting my 30-year relationship with Random House as our distributor. Anybody’s Bike Book, Living on the Earth, The Tassajara Bread Book, The Massage Book, Shelter and others all burst onto the national scene in the late ‘60s-early ’70s.”
“It marked the beginnings of Ten Speed Press, Shambhala Publications, North Point Press, Straight Arrow Publishing, Heyday Press, and Shelter Publications, among others. Until then, no West Coast books were getting major national distribution — books not conceived, edited or censored in NYC. It was a revolution.”
Key dates (from article)
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Early 1968 | Dome Cookbook published by Steve Baer — Kahn’s “first flash of insight” |
| Fall 1968 | First Whole Earth Catalog published |
| Fall 1969 | WEC sells 100,000 copies in four weeks; Random House distribution secured |
| 1970 | Domebook One (Kahn + Bob Easton) |
| 1971 | Domebook 2 — 160,000 copies before pulled |
| 1973 | Shelter (Kahn + Easton) — pivot away from domes after concluding they “did not work as homes” |
Key people
- Lloyd Kahn — author; ex-insurance broker turned carpenter/builder, Big Sur; wrote Domebook One, Domebook 2, Shelter
- Stewart Brand — Whole Earth Catalog founder; directly influenced by Dome Cookbook
- Lois Brand — Stewart’s wife; present at Menlo Park Truck Store
- Bob Easton — Kahn’s co-author on Domebook One and Shelter
- Don Gerrard — agent who brokered WEC/Domebook deal with Random House
- Jim Silberman — Random House editor-in-chief