At the same time, he was also developing a deep love of writing, and his talent was such that, while still in high school, he was accepted into the venerable Athenaeum Literary Association, an organization whose membership was mostly comprised of the children of well-to-do families.īut Thompson was not to be contained, and his contributions to the group’s newsletter were typically sarcastic and incendiary. Frequently involved in mischief, Thompson ran with a group of friends that were constantly testing the limits.
His father, Jack, was a World War I veteran and insurance agent who died while Thompson was in high school, and his mother, Virginia, was an alcoholic left penniless and in charge of their charming but incorrigible son and his two younger brothers. Hunter Stockton Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on July 18, 1937. However, his fondness for substances also contributed to several bouts of poor health, and in 2005 Thompson committed suicide at the age of 67. For the remainder of his life, Thompson’s hard-driving lifestyle - which included the steady use of illicit drugs and an ongoing love affair with firearms - and his relentlessly antiauthoritarian work made him a perpetual counterculture icon. Following his military service, Thompson traveled the country to cover a wide array of topics for numerous magazines and developed an immersive, highly personal style of reporting that would become known as “Gonzo Journalism.” He would employ the style in the 1972 book for which he is best known, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was an instant and lasting success. Thompson showed a knack for writing at a young age, and after high school began his career in journalism while serving in the United States Air Force.
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