Biography

Hunter S. Thompson’s career in journalism started while he was in the US Air Force in 1956. Thompson became the sports editor of The Command Courier, the newspaper of the Eglin Air Force Base. After leaving the Air Force (he resented the lack of freedom), Thompson began migrating from city to city and newspaper to newspaper for several years. During this time, he accepted a job in Pennsylvania, and then moved to New York where he worked for Time Magazine and a small New York newspaper. He was fired from both jobs for insubordination. He then moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico where he wrote for several English-Language newspapers. His experiences there were the inspiration for The Rum Diary. Like Thompson, Kemp is a nomadic journalist whose exploits and independent mindset often led to trouble. After that, he moved to Brazil, then to San Francisco. During this time, he married Sandra Conklin and became a part of the hippie counter-culture of the 1960s.

Thompson had his first literary success with the novel, Hell’s Angels, in 1966. He had been living with the Hell’s Angels motorcycle gang for several years leading up to the publishing of the book. Hell’s Angels was a success and brought Thompson’s writing to a wider audience. By the late 1960’s, Thompson’s articles were being published in high-profile newspapers and magazines.

By the 1970’s, Thompson had become disenchanted with the increasing lack of political resolve of the hippies and became increasingly pessimistic about the American dream. Thomson moved to Aspen, Colorado where he ran for sheriff in 1970. Among his campaign promises were the legalization of drugs, outlawing the construction of all buildings tall enough to block the view of the Rocky Mountains, and destroying all the streets in Aspen to be replaced by grassy parks. Thompson narrowly lost the election, but used the experience to gain a job writing for Rolling Stone magazine, a job which lasted him much of his life.

While on assignment in to write a magazine article about a motorcycle race in Las Vegas, Nevada, Thompson began writing the novel, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a book which paralleled Thompson’s own life in much the same way The Rum Diary had. The book was published in a series of Rolling Stone magazines in 1972. The book focused on the failure of the 1960’s hippie counter-culture and the death of the American Dream. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was representative of Thompson’s new form of journalism: Gonzo Journalism. Gonzo Journalism is intentionally subjective and focuses as much on the process of getting a story as it does on the story itself. For example, a 1970 article about the Kentucky Derby did not focus on the races themselves, but on the corruption of the people attending the event and on Thompson’s actions that day.

Thompson continued to employ this style as he wrote a series of articles for Rolling Stone which described the 1972 presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern. McGovern ultimately won the Democratic nomination, only to lose the presidential election to Richard Nixon. Thompson was a sharp critic of Nixon, seeing him as the embodiment of everything that was wrong with America. These articles were later published in the collection, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972.

That’s essentially everything you need to know to follow the books I will be covering in this blog. If I have time after finishing Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail, 1972, I’ll explain Thompson’s later career.

BTW: Yep, that's an ad. I've sold out.