Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson was a writer and journalist who blew apart conventional concepts of objective reporting: he was part and parcel of the 1960s counter-culture, and a crazed chronicler of its demise. Thompson never set out to simply report a story: topics would morph between reality and fiction, often shifting to disjointed musings on his own drug-induced behavior. Raised in Kentucky, Thompson first started writing when he joined the Air Force in 1959, assigned as the sports editor for the base’s newspaper. After being given an early discharge, Thompson wrote sports material for a publication in Puerto Rico and was a correspondent in South America for the National Observer. In 1965, The Nation asked him to write a story about the California-based Hells Angels. Thompson spent a year living and riding with the bikers. The book, Hells Angels: The Strange and and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, was published to great reviews. Much of his subsequent writing was in the music magazine Rolling Stone. The now-classic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971) was first released as a series in Rolling Stone. Thompson also covered presidential election campaigns for the magazine. Through the late 1980s, Thompson wrote a column for the San Francisco Examiner and spent much of his time at his compound in Colorado. He was an avid member of the National Rifle Association, and also championed the legalization of marijuana. After the release of the film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) Thompson found more fans in a new generation of readers. Thompson died in 2005 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. His funeral literally encapsulated his life, as his ashes were shot from a cannon along with fireworks to the tune of Bob Dylan’s "Mr. Tambourine Man."
