Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson, aside from being someone we all might aspire to be one day, was a journalist, writer, small-time politician, drug abuser, heavy drinker, chain-smoking, gun-toting explosion-liker and all round nice guy. He quickly rose to fame after writing his seminal work, Hells Angels - A Strange and Terrible Saga, which describes the time he spent riding around with the Hells Angels motorcycle club. He became quite close friends with the Oakland chapter and then Hells Angels big man Sonny Barger. This collaborative friendship came to a grinding halt when the Hells Angels discovered that Thompson did not plan to share any of the book's proceeds with the club (although in a later interview Barger said all Thompson owed them was a keg of beer) and they viciously stomped him, nearly to death. After the Hells Angels episode, Thompson went on to write for Rolling Stone Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle, failed magazine Scanlan's, and wrote several well regarded books.
He is a Kentuckian, though very few people there will ever admit it. He also voiced skepticism regarding the official story on who was responsible for 9/11, although, he admitted he had no way to prove his theory.[1]
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[edit] Fear and Loathing
Perhaps the most iconic piece of Thompson's work was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. This savage journey of drug abuse, decadence and obvious fun defined Thompson for a generation. Thompson's partner on this escapade was his attorney, Oscar Zeta Acosta (known in the book as Dr. Gonzo and also known as The Brown Buffalo), a Chicano activist and lawyer. Acosta would later go missing in what some believe was a drug deal gone bad and Thompson would write an obituary titled "The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat".
Until The Rum Diary was published, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was Thompson's only declared work of "fiction" as "Only a fool or a linthead would admit to any of the hellbroth of felonies committed in the course of this story." However, after Thompson's death, Jann Wenner, owner of Rolling Stone Magazine, admitted in the Thompson biography Gonzo that 90% of the actions in Fear and Loathing were true to word.
[edit] Death
Hunter's life ended in a manner befitting its content - with a planned gunshot wound from his own hand. His son, Juan, and grandson, Will, were in another room while Thompson was on the phone to his wife, Anita. It is thought Thompson shot himself while his son was in the house so he would be found quickly and by those he loved. Thompson wanted to have his ashes blown from a cannon (of sorts) and after his death, friend and actor, Johnny Depp (who played him in the film version of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and spent many hours with him in order to develop his role) paid to have a huge tower built, taller than the Statue of Liberty, and at the top was mounted a two-thumbed fist clutching a peyote button (the "Gonzo Fist", a symbol Thompson used in his campaign for sheriff, and subsequently adopted as his unofficial logo) which exploded his ashes into the atmosphere[2]. Every time you breathe, you breathe in a little Hunter Thompson.
[edit] Selected bibliography
- The Rum Diaries
- Hells Angels - A Strange and Terrible Saga
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
- Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
- The Great Shark Hunt
- Songs of the Doomed
- Polo is my Life
- Fear and Loathing in America - The Gonzo Letters
[edit] External links
- http://www.fear-loathing.com - click "Stuff" and then "The Book" for the full text.