Product Description

Few American lives are stranger or wilder than that of Hunter S. Thompson. Born a rebel in Kentucky, Thompson spent a lifetime channelling his energy into such landmark works as FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS - and his provocative style revolutionised writing. Now, for the first time ever, Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour have interviewed Thompson's friends, family and colleagues and woven their memories into a brilliant oral biography. From Hell's Angels leader Sonny Barger, to Ralph Steadman, to Jack Nicholson, more than 100 members of Thompson's inner circle bring into vivid focus the life of a man who was more complicated and talented than any previous portrait has shown. It's all here: the creative frenzies, the love affairs, the drugs, booze and guns, and, ultimately, the tragic suicide. As Thompson was fond of saying, "Buy the ticket, take the ride."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167645 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Review
'An excellent oral history tribute to Hunter S. Thompson' GQ 'For those who like their literary entertainment with a little more snarl to it' THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 'A wonderfully entertaining chronicle of Hunter's (life)' International Herald Tribune

The Daily Telegraph
'For those `who like their literary entertainment with a little more snarl to it'

About the Author
Jann Wenner is the founder, owner and editor of Rolling Stone magazine, and was one of Thompson's closest friends. Corey Seymour is a writer and editor who came to know Hunter S. Thompson whilst working as his assistant at Rolling Stone.

Customer Reviews

Gonzo Lite
I don't mind the price, although it is pretty hefty, or the notion of a Gonzo coffee table book, so long as it is presented with great care, and I can ignore the idea that this is a cash-in or a sell-out, because it was begun before Hunter Thompson quit the field of play, and, as I understand it, with his endorsement. The gallery-quality print can be taken out for framing, and is stamped on the back to affiliate it with the special limited edition of 3000 copies of 'Gonzo' - so it contains a 'genuine' piece of Gonzo artwork, consisting of a self-portrait of Thompson around the time of 'The Rum Diary'. In short, this is a beautifully presented book, provided you aren't expecting anything particularly new and you aren't disappointed by a publication consisting mainly of photographs - its essentially a high quality art book, like those made by Taschen. It comes well-packaged in a sealed and numbered cardboard box to protect the limited edition blue box, which is stamped with the Gonzo logo and houses the print and the book itself. However, it is worth noting that although the box is about two and a half inches thick the book itself is more like one inch thick - its not a great big tome as the details might imply. Futhermore, a couple of the nude photographs are censored, by way of a black rectangle protecting us from the sight of - shock! horror! - female pubic hair, which seems particularly patronising given the subject matter and the arty nature of the book - not to mention being off-key in a work about such a free-thinking libertarian. This concession to 'comfortable lounges' and 'not upsetting the children' is, for me, by far the most disappointing aspect of the whole thing because it becomes shameful, in an irritatingly coy manner, by atributing shame - it also ruins the political satire of the photographs, one of which features a naked girl wearing a rubber Nixon mask as she squats on a toilet. In a way these acts of censorship sum up the whole book, which, for all its careful construction - and perhaps, in fact, because of it - was always going to be Gonzo lite. I knew that when I bought it, but I didn't realise it would involve doctoring the Doctor's images...

Highly Recommended for any HST Fan and newcomer alike
I am not sure what the product 'Ozric9' was reviewing but this isn't it - I suspect this is for another product called 'Gonzo'.

Anyway this is on the face of it, is simply a collection of anecdotes, stories, interviews with people who knew, worked with, lived with, shared their lives with Hunter Thompson at some point during his own often wild and unpredictable life.

It isn't as boring as it sounds and while one would think this could be a mawkish, sycophantic pile of drivel, it really isn't.

The book is divided into chapters each reflecting key stages in HST's home, work and literary life. While the interviewees are the same two dozen or so throughout the book - with occasional comments by those who were involved in the incident/part of HTS life that is being discussed at the time - they are organized in a way such that you end up with a very rounded view of 'what happened when/where/how and why' at any one particular time.

Jann Wenner - the main author of the book - was the editor of Rolling Stone Magazine through the heyday of HST's career. He has done a wonderful job of editing this so that while the reader is presented with half a dozen points of view on any given pair of facing pages, it is as if you were in the room with all the main characters of his life and they are all, one-by-one telling you the story.

HST doesn't often come out that well, indeed in some parts you realise what a monster he must have been to live or work with. Which is what makes this an interesting read.

While this is indeed the life of HST, it is also the life of all the others that helped keep the HST-show on the road.

I read Ralph Steadman's 'The Joke's Over' and liked it a lot, but don't seem to really recall much from it, this however is much more interesting and you get a much bigger picture of what made the man Tick (and tic).

If you are about to embark on any of his collection of letters, I would suggest reading this first as it will help make the 'letters' book much more than a diatribe of whining and obsession about money. I am not sure your hard-core Hunter fan will learn that much more, but some myths will certainly be exploded (where the Gonzo term comes from for a start), the perspective of HST's relationship with the Hell's Angels he wrote about in his book is also given a slightly different slant by Sonny Barger (the then head of the Hell's Angel's chapter HST 'ran with' for his book), how he really failed covering Vietnam and Ali's fight in Zaire and what his editors thought of that.

On the other hand you will also realise that some of the articles you may have thought made up really did happen - Jack Nicolson and the Elk Heart episode from Kingdom of Fear is given coverage by Jack himself and Angelica Huston (who was also present and who, it seems, really didn't have much time for HST).

Recommended

A piece of history
The world is emptier without the watchful eye of the godfather of gonzo. This scrapbook completes any serious hunter fans collection. I never knew what a talented and prolific photographer he was. Do not be with out a copy of this.