Reissued for today’s reader with a cover by the renowned artist Seymour Chwast and an introduction by the New York Times bestselling author Robin Sloan, The Right Stuff is “Tom Wolfe at his very best” (The New York Times Book Review).
What does it take to be an astronaut?

First published in 1979, Tom Wolfe’s astounding book The Right Stuff answers this question and more, exploring both the mental and the physical sacrifices that must be made by individuals entering space. Wolfe tells the stories of the pilots, engineers, and astronauts involved in Project Mercury (1958–1963), the United States’ first human spaceflight program.

A breathtaking epic, a magnificent adventure story, and an investigation into the heroism and courage of the first American astronauts to conquer space, The Right Stuff is a true American classic.
 
Contributor Bio(s)
 
Tom Wolfe (1930–2018) was one of the founders of the New Journalism movement and the author of such classics as The Right Stuff and Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers, along with several novels including The Bonfire of the Vanities, A Man in Full, and I Am Charlotte Simmons. His numerous honors include the National Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, the Washington Irving Medal, the National Humanities Medal, and the National Book Foundation Medal. He lived in New York City.