“He believed we were better than what we were electing.”
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Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author, regarded as a pioneer of New Journalism along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Joan Didion, and Tom Wolfe. He rose to prominence with the book Hell's Angels (1967), for which he lived a year among the Hells Angels motorcycle club to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences. In 1970, he wrote an unconvent…
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culture · American journalist and author (1937–2005) · journalist · novelist · reporter · essayist · writer · autobiographer · screenwriter · politician · photographer · also Hunter S. Thompson, Thompson
Born 18 July 1937 · Died 20 February 2005 · Q219780
58 published statements · 0 followers
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2026· 3 entries
The Guardian: Colorado investigators confirm Hunter S Thompson’s 2005 death was a suicide
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When authorities concluded that they found no evidence to suggest Thompson died of anything other than suicide
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2025· 1 entry
The Guardian: Hunter S Thompson’s death to be reviewed more than 20 years later
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2024· 1 entry
The Guardian: An audience with Hunter S Thompson at his Aspen lair, 1998
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2022· 2 entries
The Guardian: ‘He was a handful’ – Hunter S Thompson’s PA and photographer relives her wild job
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Denied the claims that he canceled Thompson's insurance, saying that Thompson spent most of his time in Saigon obsessing over evacuation plans
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2019· 1 entry
The Guardian: My gonzo night at Hunter S Thompson's cabin – now on Airbnb
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2018· 1 entry
The Guardian: 'Hell and slander': Hunter S Thompson's letters to childhood friend to be sold
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2017· 3 entries
Snopes rated the claim “Bill Murray and Hunter S. Thompson were photographed wearing shirts reading "Buy Me Brunch" and "Polite as Fuck."” False.
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The Guardian: Jann Wenner: ‘Hunter S Thompson let his talent slip’
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The Guardian: Johnny Depp spent $3m blasting Hunter S Thompson's ashes from cannon, ex-managers claim
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2008· 1 entry
“Outlaw Journalist : The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson”
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2005· 5 entries
In a private funeral at Owl Farm, Thompson's ashes were fired from a cannon
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Thompson fatally shot himself at the age of 67, following a series of health problems
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Thompson died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head at Owl Farm, his "fortified compound" in Woody Creek, Colorado
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Died 2005-02-20.
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“I would feel real trapped in this life if I didn't know I could commit suicide at any time. (ang.)”
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2004· 3 entries
Thompson wrote: "[Richard] Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for—but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush–Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him
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“[Richard] Nixon was a professional politician, and I despised everything he stood for—but if he were running for president this year against the evil Bush–Cheney gang, I would happily vote for him.”
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Simon & Schuster collected some of the columns from the first few years and released them in mid-2004 as Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness
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2003· 1 entry
It combined new material (including reminiscences of the O'Farrell Theater), selected newspaper and digital clippings, and other older works
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1999· 1 entry
And was even assigned ISBN 0-679-40694-8, but was never published
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1998· 1 entry
And in 2011 was adapted as a motion picture
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1997· 2 entries
Under felony murder charges for the death of police officer Bruce VanderJagt, despite contradictory statements and dubious evidence
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That drugs should be legalized "[a]cross the board
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1996· 2 entries
As "a sex book—you know, sex, drugs, and rock and roll
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Modern Library reissued Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas along with "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan", "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved", and "Jacket Copy for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas"
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1994· 1 entry
The magazine published "He Was a Crook", a "scathing" obituary of Richard Nixon
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1992· 1 entry
Was a well-received fictional rallying cry against the nomination of Clarence Thomas to a seat on the Supreme Court of the United States
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1985· 1 entry
Thompson accepted an advance to write about "feminist pornography" for Playboy
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1983· 1 entry
At the behest of Terry McDonell, he wrote "A Dog Took My Place", an exposé for Rolling Stone of the scandalous Roxanne Pulitzer divorce case and what he called the "Palm Beach lifestyle"
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1981· 1 entry
As "The Charge of the Weird Brigade" and was later excerpted in Playboy in 1983
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1980· 2 entries
In Where the Buffalo Roam and explicitly in 1998 in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
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Thompson divorced his wife, Sandra Conklin
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1979· 1 entry
And ending with Better Than Sex in 1994, the series is largely a collection of rare newspaper and magazine pieces from the pre-Gonzo period, along with almost all of his Rolling Stone pieces
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1975· 1 entry
Wenner assigned Thompson to travel to Vietnam to cover what appeared to be the end of the Vietnam War
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1973· 1 entry
Thompson tried cocaine for the first time and various friends, family members, and editors remarked that its impact upon his productivity and creativity was devastating
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1971· 2 entries
Wenner agreed to assign Thompson to cover the 1972 United States presidential election for Rolling Stone
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Of the 26th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which lowered the legal voting age from 21 to 18, making a large part of its mostly young readership suddenly eligible to vote
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1970· 4 entries
Wrote an unconventional article titled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for Scanlan's Monthly, which further raised his profile as a countercultural figure
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Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, as part of a group of citizens running for local offices on the "Freak Power" ticket
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Thompson wrote an article entitled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for the short-lived New Journalism magazine Scanlan's Monthly
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Cardoso (who was then the editor of The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine) wrote to Thompson praising the "Kentucky Derby" piece as a breakthrough: "This is it, this is pure Gonzo
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1968· 1 entry
To write a satirical book called The Johnson File about President Lyndon B
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1967· 1 entry
Shortly before the Summer of Love, Thompson wrote "The 'Hashbury' is the Capital of the Hippies" for The New York Times Magazine
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1966· 1 entry
And the fight between Thompson and the Angels was well-marketed
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1965· 2 entries
After which he received several book offers and spent the next year living and riding with the club
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Carey McWilliams, editor of The Nation, hired Thompson to write a story about the Hells Angels motorcycle club in California
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1963· 1 entry
Shortly after returning to the United States, and lived briefly in Aspen, Colorado
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1961· 2 entries
Thompson visited San Francisco and eventually lived in Big Sur, where he spent eight months as security guard and caretaker at Slates Hot Springs, just before it became the Esalen Institute
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With additional volumes in 1965 and 1969
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1960· 1 entry
Thompson moved to San Juan, Puerto Rico, to take a job with the sporting magazine El Sportivo, which ceased operations soon after his arrival
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1958· 1 entry
While he was an airman first class, his commanding officer recommended him for an early honorable discharge
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1956· 1 entry
Transferred to Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida
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1952· 2 entries
When Thompson was 14, his father died of myasthenia gravis at age 58
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Was accepted as a member of the Athenaeum Literary Association, a school-sponsored literary and social club that dated to 1862
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1937· 1 entry
Born 1937-07-18.
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