Hunter S. Thompson, creator of Gonzo Journalism, not
only is known for his writing, but also for his persona. Who else would
have discrepancies about his birth date? All sources agree that he was
born on July 18, however some say 1937 and others say 1939, still more
cite both. A man born twice? Obviously not, so which is it – only
Thompson knows.
In high school it appeared that Thompson would become an
athlete (Whitmer 29). Instead, a series of arrests would follow. After
an arrest in 1956 for robbery, Thompson was sentenced to sixty days in a
correctional facility; after thirty days he was released. By then it
was too late for him to graduate with the rest of his class, and he
joined the United States Air Force. A year later he received his
diploma after he was given credit for courses he took while serving. He
also studied journalism at Columbia University in New York. While
enlisted he began his journalism career; he worked as a sports writer
and later as editor for the Eglin Air Force Base Newsletter (McKeen 6).
His supervising officer's discovery that Thompson had also been
moonlighting for a civilian newspaper was the culminating event that led
to his honorable discharge in 1958 (6).
His career continued to include work as the Caribbean
correspondent for Time in 1959 and for the New York
Herald Tribune from 1959 until 1960 (Contemporary). Then, in
1961 he became the South American correspondent for the National
Observer, which he continued until 1963. From 1964 to 1966
he worked as the West Coast correspondent for Nation and
as a columnist for Ramparts from 1967 through 1968. He
was then a columnist for Scanlan's Monthly from 1969 thru 1970.
At this point he began his position as national affairs editor for
Rolling Stone, which lasted until 1984. In addition, he also
worked for High Times as a global affairs correspondent from 1977
until 1982. For five years from 1985 to 1990, he worked as a media
critic for the San Francisco Examiner. In 1988 he also was
editor-at-large for Smart , and he wrote freelance political
analysis for various European magazines (Contemporary).
In order to research the Hell's Angels for his first
book, Thompson rode with the Angels for almost a year ( Contemporary).
During this time he recorded their road rallies, their home lives, as
well as their sexual adventures. His goal was to objectively describe
the gang while, at the same time, exposing the media's role in their
brutal reputation. Yet, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage
Journey to the Heart of the American Dream remains his best-known
work. In this exemplary display of Gonzo Journalism, Thompson provides
a "report of an actual experience which was largely fantasy or an actual
fantasy which is disguised as report" (Contemporary ).
Not only is Thompson an author and journalist, but he
also had a run in politics. In 1968 he was a candidate for sheriff of
Pitkin County, CO; election results were: Glen Ricks, 171 votes, Carrol
Whitmer 1533 votes, and Hunter Thompson 1065 votes (Carroll 133). Even
though he was not elected, Thompson was still influential, as he was a
member of the sheriff's advisory committee of Pitkin County from 1976
thru 1981. He is also executive director of the Woody Creek Rod and Gun
Club (Contemporary).
Thompson has only married once, to Sandra Dawn Thompson
Tarlo on May 19, 1963. Between 1967 and 1972 Sandra had five
miscarriages (Othitis); Thompson only has one living child, Juan
Fitzgerald Thompson. Eventually Thompson's marriage dissolved. Sandra
Dawn Thompson Tarlo later commented that "it was a fiery end. It had a
fiery beginning. First time it was love. Last time it was fear"
(Carroll 201).
In addition, much media attention has been given to
Thompson's use of drugs and conflicts with the law. In February 1990,
he was again the center of media coverage when a woman accused him of
sexual assault (Contemporary). The woman, who was
described as an actress, a reporter, and an ex-pornographic film
producer, claimed that Thompson assaulted her when she refused to join
him in his hot tub. In response, the local police searched Thompson's
home; they discovered small quantities of marijuana and cocaine, as well
as Valium-like pills, thirty-nine hits of LSD, not to mention an antique
Gatling gun, and four sticks of dynamite. As a result, Thompson was
charged with five felonies and three misdemeanors. If convicted, he
could have spent up to fifty years in prison. However, the charges were
eventually dismissed ( Contemporary). Finally, Thompson
is represented as Uncle Duke in the comic strip Doonesbury. Here,
exaggerations of his personality as well as lifestyle (and drug use) can
be found (Brinkley).
In his introduction to Generation of Swine: Tales of
Shame and Degradation in the'80s; Gonzo Papers, Volume Two Thompson
provides a glimpse into his writing habits. He states, "I have stolen
more quotes and thoughts and purely elegant starbursts of writing
from the book of Revelation than anything else in the English
language." He elaborates that "you cannot call the desk at the Mark
Hopkins or the Las Vegas Hilton or the Arizona Biltmore and have the
bell captain bring up the collected works of Sam Coleridge or Stephen
Crane at three o'clock in the morning[… ]It simply takes too much time,
and if they've been sending bottles of Chivas up to your room for the
past three days, they get nervous when you start demanding things
they've never heard of[…]If there is a God, I want to thank Him for the
Gideons, whoever they are. I have dealt with some of His other
messengers and found them utterly useless. But not the Gideons. They
have saved me many times, when nobody else could do anything but mutter
about calling Security on me unless I turned out my lights and went to
sleep like all the others…" (9-10)
Like any journalist, Thompson had to write in the tiring
conditions of constant travel and strange hotels far from home (Thompson
9). Without a doubt this lifestyle can be exhausting, especially with
pressing deadlines. In fact, Thompson once had his assistant get a
tattoo in the middle of the night for the sake of a story (13-15).
Finally, Thompson's use of drugs, alcohol, and his
controversial lifestyle are a great part of his writing habits. Of
course, some of the media portrayal of him is embellished. Thompson
himself says, "obviously, my drug use is exaggerated or I would be long
since dead"(Thompson interview 107).
Although his early works were conventional, Thompson was
a key player in the development of the genre of New Journalism (Contemporary).
This new style evolved in the 1960s in response to the mood of the
times. In addition to Thompson, who was possibly the most visible of
these new correspondents was Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese, not to mention
others. Crawford Woods described how the basis of this new style was
"the particular sense of the nineteen-sixties that a new voice was
demanded—by the way people's public and private lives were coming
together in a sensual panic stew, with murder its meat and potatoes,
grass and acid its spice. How to tell the story of a time when all
fiction was science fiction, all facts lies? The New Journalism was
born." In fact Thompson coined the term Gonzo Journalism himself. He
later explained, "I just did that to differentiate myself from the 'new
journalists' that were cropping up. I don't know why I did it. It
seemed like a good idea at the time. But since then, we don't have any
generations of gonzo journalists, it's more than going out and getting
drunk and pushing people around in public places. It's in the Random
House Dictionary as whatever I do. 'As defined by the work of Hunter S.
Thompson,' something like that" (Carey).