The work he remains best known for, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), constitutes a rumination on the failure of the 1960s counterculture movement. Previously a relatively conventional journalist, with the publication in 1970 of The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved he became a counter-cultural figure, with his own brand of New Journalism which he termed ' Gonzo ', an experimental style of journalism where reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become central figures of their stories. For his research on the book he had spent a year living and riding with the motorcycle gang Hells Angels, experiencing their members' lives and hearing their stories first-hand. Thompson became internationally known with the publication of Hell's Angels (1967). He traveled frequently, including stints in California, Puerto Rico, and Brazil, before settling in Aspen, Colorado, in the early 1960s. He subsequently joined the United States Air Force, becoming a sports writer for Stars and Stripes, before moving deeper into journalism. He was unable to formally finish high school as he was incarcerated for 60 days after abetting a robbery. Hunter Stockton Thompson (1937 – 2005) was an American journalist and author, and the founder of the gonzo journalism movement.īorn in Louisville, Kentucky, to a middle-class family, Thompson had a turbulent youth after the death of his father left the family in poverty.

Hunter s thompson 1971