Hunter S. Thompson

"Gonzo" was a wild, often drug- and drink-fuelled adventure, in which the author examined the politics, people, and values of his times. This title contains three collections of "Gonzo" writings that include "The Great Shark Hunt", "Generation of Swine", and "Songs of the Doomed". Hunter S. Thompson was the creator of a new kind of journalism and invented a new style of writing. "Gonzo" was a wild, often drug- and drink-fuelled adventure, in which Thompson examined the politics, people, and values of his times. In the three great collections of "Gonzo" writings, "The Great Shark Hunt", "Generation of Swine", and "Songs of the Doomed" he dissected the 60s, 70s, and 80s with violence, wit, anger, and occasional compassion. Collected together for the first time, "The Gonzo Papers Anthology" is an indispensable compendium of decadence, depravity, and a remarkably skewed common sense. ''Hunter Thompson elicits the same kind of admiration one would feel for a streaker at Queen Victoria''s funeral'' - William F. Buckley. ''No other reporter reveals how much we have to fear and loathe, yet does it so hilariously'' - Nelson Algren.

Bristling with inspired observations and wild anecdotes, this collection offers a unique insight into the voice and mind of the inimitable Hunter S. Thompson, as recorded in the pages of Playboy, The Paris Review, Esquire, and elsewhere. Fearless and unsparing, the interviews detail some of the most storied episodes of Thompson''s life: a savage beating at the hands of the Hells Angels, talking football with Nixon on the 1972 Campaign Trail ("the only time in 20 years of listening to the treacherous bastard that I knew he wasn''t lying"), and his unlikely run for sheriff of Aspen. Elsewhere, passionate tirades about journalism, culture, guns, drugs, and the law showcase Thompson''s voice at its fiercest. Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson''s moving account of her husband''s last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times

With ''long hair in the wind, beards and bandanas flapping, earrings, chain whips . . . and Harleys flashing chrome'', the Hell''s Angels erupted into 1960s America paralysing whole towns with fear. Determined to discover the truths behind the terrifying reputation of those marauding biker gangs, Hunter S. Thompson spent a year on the road with the Angels, documenting his hair-raising experiences with Charger Charley, Big Frank, Little Jesus and the Gimp. Hell''s Angels was the result: a masterpiece of underground reportage whose free-wheeling, impressionistic style created the legend of Gonzo journalism, and made Thompson''s name as the wild man of American writing.

Reissued with a hip new jacket for our summer celebration of Modern Classics first published by Flamingo in the 1970s: Hunter S Thompson's ether-fuelled, savage journey to the heart of the American Dream. 'We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold...And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas...' As knights of old buckled on armour of supernatural power, so Hunter S Thompson enters Las Vegas armed with a veritable arsenal of 'heinous chemicals'. His perilous, drug-enhanced confrontations with casino operators, bartenders, police officers and assorted representatives of the Silent Majority have a hallucinatory humour and nightmare terror never before seen on the printed page.

In this collection of essays, the first of the Gonzo Papers, the legendary Thompson hold forth on a variety of topics from the corruption of the Nixon government to the corruption of society in the e

The best, the fastest, the hippest and the most unorthodox account ever published of the US presidential electoral process in all its madness and corruption. In 1972 Hunter S. Thompson, the creator and king of Gonzo journalism, covered the US presidential campaign for Rolling Stone magazine alongside the establishment newsmen of Washington. The result is a classic piece of subversive reportage and a fantastic ride on the rollercoaster of Hunter's uniquely savage imagination. In his own words, written years before Watergate: 'It is Nixon himself who represents that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character almost every other country in the world has learned to fear and despise.'