Wolfe began his career as a regional newspaper reporter in the 1950s, achieving national prominence in the 1960s following the publication of such best-selling books as "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" (a highly experimental account of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters) and two collections of articles and essays, "Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers" and "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby". In 1979, he published the influential book "The Right Stuff" about the Mercury Seven astronauts, which was made into a 1983 film of the same name directed by Philip Kaufman.