Logan+Thompson

Hunter Thompson was one of the most important American writers of the 20th century

Hunter Thompson changed writing forever. He was one of the most influential writer in the 20th century

http://www.hunterthompson.org/biography.php

-Kentucky native -began his career in 1956 as a sports journalist -writing for the base paper at Eglin Air Force Base in Niceville, Florida -worked briefly as a copyboy for Time Magazine while living a beat-inspired lifestyle in New York City -began vacationing extensively in the Caribbean Islands and South America -Thompson eventually became a somewhat celebrated South American correspondent for a Dow Jones owned weekly magazine called The Observer -Thompson wrote two serious novels (Prince Jellyfish and The Rum Diary) and copious amounts of short stories -got his big break when he pitched a story to Harper's Magazine about his relationship with the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang -After the article was published, numerous book offers on the subject were awarded his way -He later worked for Rolling Stone magazine, where his next two books Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 1972 were first serialized. -Thompson frequently referred to himself as "Raoul Duke" or "Dr. Gonzo." -He received his 'doctorate' from a mail-order church in the sixties. -Some of Thompson's other books include Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 -Campaign Trail-he book focuses almost exclusively on the Democratic Party's primaries and the breakdown of the party as it splits between the different candidates. -In 1970, Thompson made an unsuccessful bid for Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado. He ran on a platform promoting decriminalization of drugs and the sale thereof, and renaming Aspen, Colorado as "Fat City -Quotes- "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro," -Quotes-"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me." -last book, Kingdom of Fear -Thompson also wrote a Web column, "Hey Rube," for ESPN. -He had at times also toured on the lecture circuit, once with John Belushi -Thompson was an admitted fan of firearms and was known to keep a keg of gunpowder in his basement. -Thompson died at his home in Woody Creek, Colorado, on Sunday, February 20, 2005 of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was 67 years old -Thompson is generally regarded as the grandfather of the blogging movement.

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-middle name was Stockton -referred to himself as "Raoul Duke" or "Dr. Gonzo." -originally a sports journalist writing for various publications -worked for Rolling Stone magazine during the late 1960s and 1970s- -published several books and numerous articles -noted for the creation of gonzo journalism -1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a travelogue of Thompson's trek (along with his attorney, Oscar Zeta Acosta) to cover a narcotics officers' convention in Nevada and the "fabulous Mint 400" motorcycle race. -Instead, Thompson and Acosta wind up on a search for the American dream in Las Vegas with the aid of heroic amounts of LSD, ether, adrenochrome, and numerous other drugs. -Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72- about the campaign of Nixon -Hell's Angels-an account of his travels with the infamous motorcycle gang -Kingdom of Fear, is an angry commentary on the passing of the American Century - Web column, "Hey Rube," for ESPN. - He has at times also toured on the lecture circuit, once with John Belushi. -Cartoonist Garry Trudeau based his Doonesbury character Uncle Duke on Thompson -From a 153 foot tall Gonzo Fist (that's 2 feet taller than the Staue of Liberty) that was custom built on his Owl Ranch in Woody Creek, Hunter had his remains blown out of a cannon that turned into a fireworks display that would shame most cities' Fourth of July celebrations. -Hunter was a large influence on George's life and subsequently on the creation of the Flying Dog brand -died at 67 -The Gonzo artist creates all of Flying Dog's signature labels -With writers like Tom Wolfe and Gay Talese, Thompson was known for a new style of journalism -Thompson was found dead Sunday in his home near Aspen, Colo., of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound

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-he walked into the kitchen and shot himself dead in the head -He said he wanted his ashes shot out of a cannon. -last column was a sports column for ESPN Page 2 -began his career as a sportswriter -said that the only part of the newspaper you could trust were the sports box scores because "there were too many witnesses to the final score for anyone to lie." -died at 67 gunshot wound at his compound in Woody Creek, Colorado - writer Tim Ferris and others of Hunter's close Frisco friends sat shiva with owner Jeanette Etheredge. - Gavin Newsom recalled was the night when Thompson took every glass in the bar and stacked them in an increasingly unstable pyramid on four cocktail tables. -he was a part time night manager for Playboy -many people considered that after his death his work was more appreciated -a recipient of the H.L. Mencken Award -a longtime columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle -Examiner and the former editor of Ramparts -former editor of Scanlans Monthly -former editor Francis Ford Coppollas Magazine -publisher of The Argonaut in San Francisco -chewed tobacco -wrote for Gonzo Journalism

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-compared with people like Lenny Bruce and H. L. Mencken -a high-strung, thin-skinned, programmatically dissipated workaholic, inveterately suspicious of authority, perpetually worried that his best days were behind him -his true model and hero was F. Scott Fitzgerald -He used to type out pages from "The Great Gatsby -Fear and Loathing is Las Vegas was published in 1972 -first book Hells Angels was published in 1967 when he was thirty -Commissioned by Playboy to produce a profile of the Olympic skier Jean-Claude Killy, -the literary and (often) first-person style of reportage associated with magazines such as Harold Hayes's Esquire and Willie Morris's Harper's, -The obsession with violence and chemically induced dementia in Thompson's writing gave it a kind of post-Altamont, -a favorite not of the protest marchers and flower children of the sixties but of the youth of the burned-out decade that followed. -Thompson despised the Hell's Angels -he calls them "mutants" and "losers" in his book -he had little patience for the hippies -By 1966, he thought, that world was dead -popped pills -F. Scott Fitzgerald had once thought of calling "Gatsby" "The Death of the Red White and Blue." -Hunter S. Thompson -Thompson emerged on the scene in the late nineteen-sixties -killed himself last week in his house in Woody Creek, near Aspen, Colorado, - he was a magazine writer.