HUNTER S. THOMPSON & NEW JOURNALISM
Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005), Kentucky-born, Air Force veteran, dedicated to journalism early on, was a storyteller who incorporated anthropological approaches to his journalistic fieldwork. He perceived the truth that a story about others depended on the self at the desk writing the story. How much, how honestly, and how overtly that self is recognized in the story is critical, Thompson felt, and he wasn’t shy about saying so. He is the founder of New Journalism, what he called “gonzo journalism,” which is an ongoing experiment in narrative in which the writer is a central character and thereby a participant in what is related or described.
Thompson’s influence is staggering to this day. Not only the obvious comrades in the field — Jimmy Breslin, Truman Capote, Joan Didion, David Halberstam, Pete Hamill, Norman Mailer, Joe McGinniss, George Plimpton, Rex Reed, Mike Royko, Terry Southern, Gail Sheehy, Gay Talese, Dan Wakefield, and Tom Wolfe — but fiction writers, too, paid attention to the possibilites of what Thompson articulated.
Thompson is an essential American moral voice in its literature, a description that would probably make him laugh, but consider the evaluation an Air Force officer wrote in giving Thompson his honorable discharge: "In summary, this airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy. Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other airmen staff members.” Classic description of the role of the writer in American literature.
In developing this page, associated New Journalism writers will be added, both those contemporary to Thompson and those who operate in his legacy.
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson
From the bestselling author of The Rum Diary and king of “Gonzo” journalism Hunter S. Thompson, comes the definitive collection of the journalist’s finest work from Rolling Stone. Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases the roller-coaster of a career at the magazine that was his literary home.
“Buy the ticket, take the ride,” was a favorite slogan of Hunter S. Thompson, and it pretty much defined both his work and his life. Jann S. Wenner, the outlaw journalist’s friend and editor for nearly thirty-five years, has assembled articles—and a wealth of never- before-seen correspondence and internal memos from Hunter’s storied tenure at Rolling Stone—that begin with Thompson’s infamous run for sheriff of Aspen on the Freak Party ticket in 1970 and end with his final piece on the Bush-Kerry showdown of 2004. In between is Thompson’s remarkable coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign and plenty of attention paid to Richard Nixon; encounters with Muhammad Ali, Bill Clinton, and the Super Bowl; and a lengthy excerpt from his acknowledged masterpiece, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The definitive volume of Hunter S. Thompson’s work published in the magazine, Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone traces the evolution of a personal and professional relationship that helped redefine modern American journalism, presenting Thompson through a new prism as he pursued his lifelong obsession: The life and death of the American Dream.