Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1937. He wrote a sports column for his Air Force base newspaper, then moved through a string of newspaper jobs that mostly ended badly. He freelanced from Puerto Rico and South America. His first nonfiction book, Hell's Angels (1967), grew out of his time with the motorcycle gang. It brought him assignments from Esquire, Harper's and Rolling Stone. His early novel The Rum Diary only reached print in 1998.

Thompson is tied to gonzo journalism, in which the reporter is a participant and not a neutral observer. His article "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" (Scanlan's Monthly, June 1970) is usually named as the starting point. His subjects were American politics, the sour aftermath of 1960s idealism and the abuse of power. He wrote in a fast, comic voice that mixed reportage with invention.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ran in Rolling Stone in two parts in November 1971 and came out as a book in 1972, with drawings by Ralph Steadman. Its narrator, Raoul Duke, and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, are drawn from trips Thompson made to Las Vegas with the lawyer and activist Oscar Zeta Acosta. A 1998 film starring Johnny Depp brought it a new audience. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973) collects his Rolling Stone dispatches on the Nixon-McGovern race. He died in 2005 at Woody Creek, Colorado.

Start with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It is short, it is the book that defines him, and Steadman's ink drawings are part of the experience. If you want more of his politics, read Campaign Trail '72 next. If you want to see how he built his reputation, read Hell's Angels.