Thompson, Hunter S. (1939—)
Hunter S. Thompson represents life on the edge, the counter to culture, the man who has listed his religion as none, his politics as
anarchist, and his hobby as coll...
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The American journalist Hunter Stockton Thompson (born 1937) was known as one of the best examples of "Gonzo" journalism. His political and cultural criticism of the United States in the 1970s was lar...
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Hunter S. Thompson ranks among the first and foremost practitioners of New Journalism, a genre that evolved in the 1960s to reflect the particular mood of those times. Thompson, who has called his bra...
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Hunter S. Thompson created an explosive, first-person, gonzo style of reportage that brashly pushed the language and limits of American literary journalism into boldly original new directions. With we...
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In the following review, Mitgang asserts that Thompson "takes no prisoners" in his Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the 80s.
Hunter S. Thompson, who gained a fan cl...
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In the following review, Freely discusses Thompson's Better Than Sex and Paul Perry's unauthorized biography of Thompson and asserts that the gonzo journalist has lost his edge.
When Pet...
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In the following review, the critic faults Thompson's Better Than Sex, saying, "The aim is true but the barbs not quite as lethal as his earlier literary death blows."
As irrevere...
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In the following essay, McCumber discusses the impact of Thompson's work and his current projects.
"I have weird dreams," Hunter Stockton Thompson says. "I never expected t...
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In the following review, Kaiser calls Thompson's The Proud Highway "neither particularly interesting nor particularly well-written."
In the introduction to this nearly 700-page co...
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In the following review, Bernstein discusses Thompson's need to record his life and share it with the public in The Proud Highway.
One thing that this collection of letters makes clear at the o...
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In the following review, Ross asserts the value of Thompson's wisdom in Generation of Swine.
In the literary free-fire zone of American culture and political commentary, Hunter S. Thompson has ...
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In the following review, Vigilante complains that Thompson's "Generation of Swine is no more than the wish-fulfillment of a slightly deranged registered Democrat."
It is hard to a...
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In the following interview, Allis describes his attempt to interview Thompson.
Boston correspondent Sam Allis went to Colorado last week to interview Hunter S. Thompson, the inventor of gonzo journali...
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In the following review, Rosenbaum asserts that Thompson is at his best in Songs of the Doomed when he's on the road after a story, instead of writing from the sidelines of his Woody Creek home...
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In the following excerpt, Menand reviews Thompson's Songs of the Doomed, charging that the author is still living in the counterculture of the 1970s.
After the Altamont concert disaster in Dece...
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In the following review, Copetas discusses Thompson's Songs of the Doomed and offers personal reminiscences of socializing with "Doc" Thompson.
The winter of 1978 is full of stran...
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In the following review, Gaughan asserts that although Thompson's Better Than Sex is not better than his Fear and Loathing books, it is worthy of attention.
At some point, people as diverse as ...
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In the following review, Ross praises Thompson's style but complains that his Better Than Sex is too disjointed.
In Better Than Sex, Hunter S. Thompson has assembled a collection of mash notes&...
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Critical Essay by Leo E. Litwak
The easy acceptance of violence lends to ["Hell's Angels"] a cartoon quality. We observe Angels brutalizing themselves and others and somehow we ex...
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Critical Essay by Morris Dickstein
The change in journalism in the sixties showed itself more spectacularly on the fringes than at the center of established institutions. The so-called New Journalism,...
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Critical Essay by Jerome Klinkowitz
Thompson's methods … go beyond traditional fiction into those of more innovative art—techniques and styles tasting more of [Ronald] Sukenick an...
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Critical Essay by John Hellmann
By conceiving his journalism as a form of fiction, Thompson has been able to shape actual events into meaningful works of literary art. (p. 16)
New journalists, such as...
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Critical Essay by William F. Buckley, Jr.
The "60's," which ran from 1965 to 1974, brought forth a fresh, raw journalism appropriate to the general abandon…. Hunter Thompso...
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Critical Essay by Garry Wills
Apocalypse has come and gone, and what will the psychedelic writers do now—Norman Mailer and Tom Wolfe and Hunter Thompson? Did they flame out, like their decade? ...
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Critical Essay by Gene Lyons
As I write, Raoul Duke is standing blindfolded in front of an Iranian firing squad, haggling over the bribe he is offering. For Doonesbury's sake, I hope those atav...
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Critical Essay by Oscar Handlin
[Hell's Angels] shows the extent to which, in our society, the individual needs protection against himself as well as against others. This is a reporter's...
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Critical Essay by Christopher Lehmann-haupt
I guess you'd best forget trying to understand the rationale behind Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Jour...
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Critical Essay by Michael Putney
Bad craziness. Dangerous lunacy. Permanent hysteria. But especially bad craziness. That is Hunter S. Thompson's real destination on his "savage journey t...
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Critical Essay by Joseph Kanon
[In] December 1971, as national correspondent for Rolling Stone. Thompson hit the presidential campaign trail, and his stream of monthly Gonzo journalism reports became ...
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Critical Essay by Jonathan Raban
It's taken me a month to get through [Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas], and Thompson's slickly unpleasant sentences still stick in the gullet. Does the ro...
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Critical Essay by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
I worry about the health of Dr. Hunter Thompson. I think I am supposed to do that. He is the most creatively crazy and vulnerable of the New Journalists, seemingly...
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Critical Essay by Jules Witcover
[If] you accept what Thompson is doing, [Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72] works. That is, this heavily personalized writing-on-the-run, riddled her...
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Critical Essay by Wayne C. Booth
These days The Making of the President 1972 is of course damned, because Theodore White comes too close to accepting President Nixon's view of himself…. ...
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When many people think of America they first think about the founding fathers, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, etc., although these men created the rules on which our society stands there is at ...
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Thompson, Hunter S. (1939—)
Hunter Stockton Thompson
Hunter S. Thompson
Hunter S(tockton) Thompson
