Who is hunter s thompson

One of those trips, ostensibly taken to report on a race in the Nevada desert, turned into an epic of creative destruction—a mix of radical political theater, raw debasement, elegant debauchery in the Southern Gothic style, and monkey-wrenching vandalism. Before Vegas , Hunter's patented brand of Gonzo Journalism—the deeply personal, ferociously hallucinogenic style he created in with " The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved "—was still just a sub-genre of New Journalism.

The experimental school born in the s called for journalists to surrender the pretense of objectivity and inject their own experiences into stories, often by using techniques more commonly found in novels, short stories, poetry or plays.

When Vegas was published—first in November as a story in Rolling Stone magazine, and in book form the following year—all that changed. From the stark blast of its opening line—a sentence that would soon join " Call me Ishmael ," and " It is a truth universally acknowledged ," among the more memorable opening lines in literature—all the way to the famed coda in which Thompson's protagonist and alter ego, Raoul Duke delivers a venomous, yet truly mournful eulogy for the dead dreams of the utopian 's, the reader barely gets chance to breathe.

Vulgar and charming, obscene and honest, with a seemingly unquenchable rage, and unending list of things to rage against—the pain of the human condition, the various betrayals he sees of the American Dream, or the horrors of Debbie Reynolds in a silver Afro wig. For a follow-up, he out did himself. By a longshot.

He covered the presidential election in Rolling Stone, work collected and published as the intimidatingly thick tome Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ' Though Vegas might be his best-known work, Campaign is far more important. Thompson didn't just break the long-standing agreement between politicos and press to keep "minor" scandals from the public eye. Cough, John Edwards, cough. He tore it up and burned the pieces, gleefully exposing lies wherever he saw them and denouncing hypocrisy with an apocalyptic vengeance, using language that makes today's supposedly outrageous media pundits look like Disney characters.

Campaign Trail was equally ruthless, and equally groundbreaking, for being first to give the American people a glimpse at the inner-workings of the noble Fourth Estate—i. After Campaign Trail , Hunter was a genre unto himself. Gonzo had evolved from a mere writing style into comprehensive worldview. It not only encompassed a literary and visual aesthetic—the latter created with the help of long-time Thompson illustrator Ralph Steadman—but also a political ideology, an ethical code.

The depth to which Thompson's sensibility and persona has permeated American mass consciousness is simply staggering. He wasn't a rock musician or a movie star, and he famously hated appearing on television. Gonzo, Thompson's watchword and brainchild, even gave its name to a Muppet. That was 17 years too long, according to the note Thompson left for his wife Anita, who was out that day. No more bombs. No more walking. Anita heard what she thought was the rattle of the typewriter keys as she killed the call.

It was the sound of him cocking his gun. But, who killed Hunter S Thompson? And why do we ask? Never mind who killed Hunter S Thompson, who was he, anyway? He was a journalist, mainly, with a side order of guns, booze and drugs.

Or maybe that was the other way round. The young Thompson never made it through high school, due to being banged up in prison for his involvement in a robbery, and after that he joined the United States Air Force.

For the next seven or eight years Thompson shinned up the greasy journalism pole, working his way around the States, getting as far as Puerto Rico. He hitchhiked across the US, ending up in bohemian Big Sur in He married his long-time girlfriend Sandy Dawn Conklin in , and they had Juan.

They divorced 17 years later. They moved to San Francisco which was growing its hair and loosening its belt and turning on to hippy drug culture, and Thompson found this mighty appealing. After years of writing straight news stuff for the big papers, he turned his attention to the burgeoning underground press movement, and began to write for the likes of the Berkeley-based independent paper Spider.

It is, as the cover trumpets, a book in itself. Hinckle had a pet monkey in his office, called Henry Luce, which was also, not coincidentally at all, the name of the founder of the twin colossi of American mainstream magazine publishing, TIME and Life magazines. Thompson rocked up at the office one day, dumped his bag, and went out with Hinckle for dinner.

When they got back, poor old Henry Luce was off his nut. Skip to main content. Search for:. Biography: Hunter S. Thompson Hunter Stockton Thompson July 18, — February 20, was an American journalist and author, and the founder of the gonzo journalism movement.

Thompson Hunter S. Thompson, Long Beach, California, May View Hunter S.