The Right Stuff

Tom Wolfe's account of the Mercury astronauts and the test pilots who preceded them — using New Journalism technique to explore the culture of military aviation and the nature of courage.

'The right stuff': the unspoken, almost mystical quality of controlled fearlessness that defined the elite test pilot culture. Chuck Yeager as its embodiment — and as the greatest pilot who never became an astronaut because he lacked a college degree. The astronauts as reluctant celebrities who had to perform 'the right stuff' for a media culture that had no way to assess it. Wolfe's most structurally achieved nonfiction narrative.