Hunter S. Thompson, 1939 - 2005.

Hunter S Thompson, the "gonzo journalist" himself and acclaimed author of the The Rum Diary and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, has fatally shot himself. He was 67.

Jeremy Harrison.

Hunter S Thompson's best books, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, were, more than Tom Wolfe's or anyone else's, the best gauges of the pulse of those times. To pick them up and open them today is to still feel the heartbeat.

Allen Barra in Salon.

We all knew Hunter could go any day. What I expected was a headline like this: "Gonzo journalist shot by police after consuming hundreds of hits of LSD and attempting to paint murals on Aspen police cars" or something cool and strange like that. I guess I wanted an Easy Rider-type ending... a martyr who fought to the end.

Lono.

Presidential politics is a vicious business, even for rich white men, and anybody who gets into it should be prepared to grapple with the meanest of the mean. The White House has never been seized by timid warriors. There are no rules, and the roadside is littered with wreckage. That is why they call it the passing lane. Just ask any candidate who ever ran against George Bush - Al Gore, Ann Richards, John McCain - all of them ambushed and vanquished by lies and dirty tricks. And all of them still whining about it.

[...]

The genetically vicious nature of presidential campaigns in America is too obvious to argue with, but some people call it fun, and I am one of them. Election Day - especially a presidential election - is always a wild and terrifying time for politics junkies, and I am one of those, too. We look forward to major election days like sex addicts look forward to orgies. We are slaves to it.

Hunter S Thompson, covering the 2004 presidential campaign for Rolling Stone.

For more articles, pix, etc., by and about HST, see Christine Othitis Bennett's site, The Great Thompson Hunt; Bohemian Ink; and Salon's special section, which includes audio files of the 2000 Paris Review interview.

Posted by dwhudson at February 21, 2005 4:39 AM