Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson entered the world on the 18th of July 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky. He grew up as the first of three sons born to Virginia Davison Ray and Jack Robert Thompson. His father worked as a public insurance adjuster and served as a World War I veteran before dying of myasthenia gravis on the 3rd of July 1952. The boy was only fourteen years old when his father passed away. Virginia took over raising her children while working as head librarian at the Louisville Free Public Library. She became known as a heavy drinker following her husband's death. The family settled in the affluent Cherokee Triangle neighborhood of The Highlands in December 1943. Thompson attended I.N. Bloom Elementary School and later Highland Middle School. He transferred to Louisville Male High School in fall 1952 after being accepted into the Athenaeum Literary Association. This club dated back to 1862 and included members from Louisville's upper-class families. Porter Bibb, who would later become the first publisher of Rolling Stone, was one of these members.
Thompson completed basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas, then transferred to Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, Illinois. He applied to become an aviator but was rejected by the aviation-cadet program. In 1956, he moved to Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. While serving there, he landed his first professional writing job as sports editor of the Command Courier by lying about his experience. As sports editor, Thompson traveled around the United States with the Eglin Eagles football team covering games. In early 1957, he wrote a column for The Playground News in Fort Walton Beach, though regulations forbade him from using his name. His commanding officer recommended him for discharge in 1958 because his rebel attitude rubbed off on other staff. Colonel William S. Evans noted that this airman would not be guided by policy. After leaving the military, Thompson worked briefly for Time magazine as a copy boy earning fifty-one dollars weekly. He typed out parts of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms to learn their rhythms. Time fired him for insubordination in 1959. Later that year, he worked for The Middletown Daily Record in Middletown, New York before being fired after damaging an office candy machine.
In 1965, Carey McWilliams hired Thompson to write about the Hells Angels motorcycle club for The Nation. Thompson lived near San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood where the bikers resided across from the Grateful Dead. His article appeared on the 17th of May 1965, leading to several book offers. He spent the next year living and riding with the club until relations broke down over profit sharing. An argument at a party resulted in Thompson receiving a savage beating when he intervened to protect a dog and woman from abuse. Random House published Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs in 1966. In early 1968, Thompson signed the Writers and Editors War Tax Protest pledge refusing tax payments against the Vietnam War. He used a six-thousand-dollar advance from Random House to cover the 1968 United States presidential election. A few weeks later, he signed a deal with Ballantine Books to write The Johnson File about President Lyndon B. Johnson, but that deal fell through. Also in 1970, Thompson wrote The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved for Scanlan's Monthly magazine. Editor Warren Hinckle paired him with illustrator Ralph Steadman who drew expressionist illustrations using lipstick and eyeliner. This story virtually ignored the race itself focusing instead on drunken revelry surrounding the event. Bill Cardoso first called this work pure Gonzo journalism after meeting Thompson on a bus covering the 1968 New Hampshire primary.
The book for which Thompson gained most fame began during research for an article titled Strange Rumblings in Aztlan. One source was Oscar Zeta Acosta, a prominent Mexican-American activist and attorney. They decided to travel to Las Vegas to take advantage of an assignment by Sports Illustrated to write a two-hundred-and-fifty-word photograph caption on the Mint 400 motorcycle race. What started as a short caption quickly grew into something else entirely. Thompson submitted a manuscript of two thousand five hundred words to Sports Illustrated which was aggressively rejected. Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner liked the first twenty pages enough to schedule it for publication. Thompson and Acosta returned to Las Vegas to attend a drug-enforcement conference making these trips the basis for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The book serialized in two parts in November 1971 before Random House published a version the following year. It is written as a first-person account by a journalist named Raoul Duke with his three-hundred-pound Samoan attorney. During the trip they became sidetracked searching for the American Dream while consuming massive amounts of drugs including seventy-five pellets of mescaline and five sheets of high-powered blotter acid. The New York Times praised it as the best book yet written on the decade of dope. The Vegas Book introduced Gonzo journalism techniques to a wide public audience.
In 1970, Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, as part of a group running on the Freak Power ticket. His platform included promoting decriminalization of drugs for personal use only and renaming Aspen Fat City to deter investors. Despite polls showing him with a slight lead in a three-way race, Thompson lost the election garnering only forty-four percent of the county-wide vote. He later said the Rolling Stone article mobilized more opposition than supporters. In 1971, Wenner assigned Thompson to cover the 1972 United States presidential election for Rolling Stone. He received a thousand-dollar monthly retainer and rented a house near Rock Creek Park in Washington DC at the magazine's expense. Thompson traveled with candidates running in the Democratic Party presidential primaries challenging incumbent president Richard Nixon. His coverage focused mainly on Senator George McGovern of South Dakota and Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine. In an April 13 installment titled Fear and Loathing: The Banshee Screams in Florida, Thompson related how someone lifted his press credential terrorizing Muskie and his staff on a campaign train. This incident was later revealed to be an elaborate prank. Another installment contained rumors which Thompson admitted originating that Muskie had become addicted to ibogaine. Frank Mankiewicz described the series as the most accurate and least factual account of the 1972 campaign.
Thompson's journalistic work began seriously suffering after his 1974 trip to Kinshasa Zaire to cover the Rumble in the Jungle boxing match between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. He missed the match while intoxicated at his hotel and did not submit a story to the magazine. Jann Wenner told film critic Roger Ebert that after Africa he just could not write. In 1973, Thompson tried cocaine for the first time devastating his productivity and creativity according to friends and editors. In 1975, Wenner assigned him to travel to Vietnam covering what appeared to be the end of the war. Thompson arrived in Saigon just as South Vietnam collapsed fleeing the country without filing his dispatch. Starting around 1980, Thompson became less active by his standards retreating to his compound in Woody Creek rejecting projects or failing to complete them. Despite lack of new material Wenner kept Thompson on the Rolling Stone masthead as chief of the National Affairs Desk until his death. In 1980, Thompson divorced Sandra Conklin and relocated to Hawaii to research The Curse of Lono about the 1980 Honolulu Marathon. The book was poorly reviewed with sales disappointing its editor calling it disorganized and incoherent. From the late 1970s onward most literary output appeared as four-volume series entitled The Gonzo Papers.
At five forty-two pm on the 20th of February 2005, Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Owl Farm. His son Juan daughter-in-law Jennifer and grandson were visiting for the weekend. His wife Anita called him as he cocked the gun mistaking the sound for typewriter keys before hanging up. Will his grandson heard the gunshot but mistook it for a book falling. Juan found his father's body half an hour later then walked outside firing three shotgun blasts into air marking passing of his father. Years of alcohol and cocaine abuse contributed to depression problems. He was upset over advancing age and chronic medical problems including hip replacement. A suicide note titled Football Season Is Over read: I hate to advocate drugs alcohol violence or insanity to anyone but they have always worked for me. On the 20th of August 2005, in private funeral at Owl Farm Thompson's ashes fired from cannon accompanied by red white blue and green fireworks set to Spirit in the Sky and Mr Tambourine Man. Actor Johnny Depp funded the three million dollar funeral ensuring last wish came true. An estimated two hundred eighty people attended including Steadman Senators John Kerry and George McGovern actors Jack Nicholson Bill Murray Benicio del Toro and musicians Lyle Lovett.
Thompson is often credited as creator of Gonzo journalism blurring distinctions between fiction and nonfiction. His work formed major part of New Journalism literary movement attempting break free from purely objective style mainstream reporting. He almost always wrote first person extensively using own experiences emotions color story he followed. Tom Wolfe described Thompson's style as part journalism part personal memoir admixed with powers wild invention. Wenner said Thompson was DNA of Rolling Stone making him only staff writer epoch never contribute music feature. Robert Love called fact-checking Thompson one sketchiest occupations ever created publishing world trip through journalistic fun house where you didn't know real versus fake. Thompson acquired title Doctor from Church of New Truth late 1960s. He became proponent right bear arms privacy rights member National Rifle Association America co-creator Fourth Amendment Foundation assisting victims defending themselves unwarranted search seizure. He served on advisory board over thirty years until death for National Organization Reform Marijuana Laws. In 2004 Thompson wrote Richard Nixon professional politician despised everything stood for but if running against evil Bush-Cheney gang happily vote him. Scholarships established at Columbia University School General Studies for US military veterans and University Kentucky journalism students honor his memory.
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Common questions
When and where was Hunter S. Thompson born?
Hunter Stockton Thompson entered the world on the 18th of July 1937, in Louisville, Kentucky.
What year did Hunter S. Thompson die and how old was he at death?
Hunter S. Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Owl Farm on the 20th of February 2005 at age sixty-seven.
Which book introduced Gonzo journalism techniques to a wide public audience?
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas introduced Gonzo journalism techniques to a wide public audience after serialization in November 1971 and publication by Random House the following year.
Who created the term Gonzo journalism for Hunter S. Thompson's work?
Bill Cardoso first called Hunter S. Thompson's work pure Gonzo journalism after meeting him on a bus covering the 1968 New Hampshire primary.
How much money did Johnny Depp spend on Hunter S. Thompson's funeral?
Actor Johnny Depp funded the three million dollar funeral ensuring last wish came true with an estimated two hundred eighty people attending including Steadman Senators John Kerry and George McGovern actors Jack Nicholson Bill Murray Benicio del Toro and musicians Lyle Lovett.