Contents
The book has four sections, not strictly chronological, beginning with a collection of his more famous Gonzo-style articles, including those about the Kentucky Derby, Olympic skier Jean-Claude Killy, his Chicano lawyer friend Oscar Zeta Acosta ("Strange Rumblings in Aztlan"), and the 1973 Super Bowl. Next is a section on politics, including excerpts from his book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and a group of articles from 1973 and 1974 documenting the last months of Richard Nixon's presidency. The third section has a selection of Thompson's earliest writing, including for National Observer and the U.S. Air Force. The last section comprises later cultural commentary and other items. Sections from the author's two original Fear and Loathing serials ( ...in Las Vegas and on the Campaign Trail '72) are excerpted. Thompson worked for several different publications throughout his career, and The Great Shark Hunt includes articles from the National Observer, Rolling Stone , Scanlan's Monthly , The New York Times , Playboy , and others.
Personalities depicted by the author as cavorting about with him include his illustrator and friend Ralph Steadman, Chicano lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta, Jean-Claude Killy, and then-football player O. J. Simpson. Political figures appearing prominently in the collection include former U.S. presidents Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, and Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern.
The book omits the illustrations by Ralph Steadman that originally accompanied many of the Thompson articles in this collection.
Table of contents
From the 1992 Simon & Schuster paperback edition, with bibliographies by Kihm Winship.
Part One
Author's Note / Fear and Loathing in the Bunker / The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved / A Southern City with Northern Problems / Fear and Loathing at the Super Bowl / The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy / The Ultimate Free Lancer / Collect Telegram from a Mad Dog / "Genius 'Round the World Stands Hand in Hand, and One Shock of Recognition Runs the Whole Circle 'Round" – Art Linkletter (This quote was attributed to Linkletter by Thompson, but it is, in fact, a quote from Herman Melville) / Jacket Copy for Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream / A Conversation on Ralph Steadman and His Book, America, with Dr. Hunter S. Thompson / Strange Rumblings in Aztlan / Freak Power in the Rockies / Memo from the Sports Desk: The So-Called "Jesus Freak" Scare / Memoirs of a Wretched Weekend in Washington
Part Two
Presenting: The Richard Nixon Doll (Overhauled 1968 Model) / Author's Note / June, 1972: The McGovern Juggernaut Rolls On / Later in June / September / October / Epitaph / Memo from the Sports Desk & Rude Notes from a Decompression Chamber in Miami / Fear and Loathing at the Watergate: Mr. Nixon Has Cashed His Check / Fear and Loathing in Washington: The Boys in the Bag / Fear and Loathing in Limbo: The Scum Also Rises
Part Three
Traveler Hears Mountain Music Where It's Sung / A Footloose American in a Smugglers' Den / Why Anti-Gringo Winds Often Blow South of the Border / Democracy Dies in Peru, but Few Seem to Mourn Its Passing / The Inca of the Andes: He Haunts the Ruins of His Once-Great Empire / Brazilshooting / Chatty Letters During a Journey from Aruba to Rio / What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum / Living in the Time of Alger, Greeley, Debs / Marlon Brando and the Indian Fish-In / The "Hashbury" Is the Capital of the Hippies / When the Beatniks Were Social Lions / The Nonstudent Left / Those Daring Young Men in Their Flying Machines . . . Ain't What They Used to Be! / The Police Chief
Part Four
The Great Shark Hunt / Jimmy Carter and the Great Leap of Faith / Address by Jimmy Carter on Law Day: University of Georgia, Athens, GA / The Banshee Screams for Buffalo Meat / The Hoodlum Circus and the Statutory Rape of Bass Lake / Ashes to Ashes & Dust to Dust: The Funeral of Mother Miles / Welcome to Las Vegas: When the Going Gets Weird the Weird Turn Pro / Last Tango in Vegas: Fear and Loathing in the Near Room / Last Tango in Vegas: Fear and Loathing in the Far Room / Bibliography of Work by Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, by Kihm Winship / Bibliography of Work on Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, by Kihm Winship
Gonzo journalism is a style of journalism that is written without claims of objectivity, often including the reporter as part of the story using a first-person narrative. The word "gonzo" is believed to have been first used in 1970 to describe an article about the Kentucky Derby by Hunter S. Thompson, who popularized the style. It is an energetic first-person participatory writing style in which the author is a protagonist, and it draws its power from a combination of social critique and self-satire. It has since been applied to other subjective artistic endeavors.
Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author. He rose to prominence with the publication of Hell's Angels (1967), a book for which he spent a year living with the Hells Angels motorcycle club to write a first-hand account of their lives and experiences. In 1970, he wrote an unconventional article titled "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" for Scanlan's Monthly, which further raised his profile as a countercultural figure. It also set him on the path to establishing his own subgenre of New Journalism that he called "Gonzo", a journalistic style in which the writer becomes a central figure and participant in the events of the narrative.
Oscar "Zeta" Acosta Fierro was a Mexican American attorney, author and activist in the Chicano Movement. He wrote the semi-autobiographical novels Autobiography of a Brown Buffalo (1972) and The Revolt of the Cockroach People (1973), and was friends with American author Hunter S. Thompson. Thompson characterized him as a heavyweight Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo, in his 1971 novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Acosta disappeared in 1974 during a trip in Mexico and is presumed dead.
Ralph Idris Steadman is a British illustrator best known for his collaboration with the American writer Hunter S. Thompson. Steadman is renowned for his satirical political cartoons, social caricatures, and picture books.
Raoul Duke is the partially fictionalized author surrogate character and sometimes pseudonym used by Hunter S. Thompson as the main character and antihero for many of his works. He is perhaps best known as the narrator for his 1971 autobiographical novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The book was originally written under the name Raoul Duke. The character wears a bucket hat and yellow tinted aviator sunglasses.
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 is a 1973 book that recounts and analyzes the 1972 presidential campaign in which Richard Nixon was re-elected President of the United States. Written by Hunter S. Thompson and illustrated by Ralph Steadman, the book was largely derived from articles serialized in Rolling Stone throughout 1972.
"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" is a seminal sports article written by journalist Hunter S. Thompson on the 1970 Kentucky Derby, which first appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in June of that year. The article marked the birth of what would become known as "gonzo journalism".
"The Temptations of Jean-Claude Killy" is an article published in the premiere issue of Scanlan's Monthly in March 1970, written by Hunter S. Thompson.
"Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" is an article published in Rolling Stone #81, dated April 29, 1971, and written by Hunter S. Thompson. It was included in the first volume of Thompson's Gonzo Papers, The Great Shark Hunt, published in 1979.
Where the Buffalo Roam is a 1980 American semi-biographical comedy film which loosely depicts author Hunter S. Thompson's rise to fame in the 1970s and his relationship with Chicano attorney and activist Oscar "Zeta" Acosta. The film was produced and directed by Art Linson. Bill Murray portrayed Thompson and Peter Boyle portrayed Acosta, who is referred to in the film as Carl Lazlo, Esq. A number of other names, places, and details of Thompson's life are also changed.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a 1998 American stoner road black comedy film based on Hunter S. Thompson's novel of the same name. It was co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam and stars Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro as Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, respectively. The film details the duo's journey through Las Vegas as their initial journalistic intentions devolve into an exploration of the city under the influence of psychoactive substances.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream is a 1971 novel in the gonzo journalism style by Hunter S. Thompson. The book is a roman à clef, rooted in autobiographical incidents. The story follows its protagonist, Raoul Duke, and his attorney, Doctor Gonzo, as they descend on Las Vegas to chase the American Dream through a drug-induced haze, all the while ruminating on the failure of the 1960s countercultural movement. The work is Thompson's most famous book and is noted for its lurid descriptions of illicit drug use and its early retrospective on the culture of the 1960s. Thompson's highly subjective blend of fact and fiction, which it popularized, became known as gonzo journalism. Illustrated by Ralph Steadman, the novel first appeared as a two-part series in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971 before being published in book form in 1972. It was later adapted into a film of the same title in 1998 by director Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro, who portrayed Raoul Duke and Dr. Gonzo, respectively.
The Gonzo Papers is a four volume series of books by American journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson published between 1979 and 1994. The word Gonzo is often used to describe the unique style of journalism that Thompson cultivated throughout his life.
Gonzo Papers, Vol. 3: Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream is a book by the American writer and journalist Hunter S. Thompson, originally published in 1990. The third installment of the four-volume The Gonzo Papers, it is a chronologically arranged selection of essays, newspaper articles, stories and letters, allowing readers to see how Thompson's brand of New Journalism, also termed Gonzo journalism, evolved over the years. Songs of the Doomed is mostly made up of pieces written between 1980 and 1990, but there is also some older material, including excerpts from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, his unfinished first novel, Prince Jellyfish, which is still unpublished, and The Rum Diary, which was not published in its entirety until 1998.
Bibliography of works by American author and journalist Hunter S. Thompson.
The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories—Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me is a book written and illustrated by Ralph Steadman chronicling the odd and very often dangerous times when he met and worked with his friend Hunter S. Thompson. It contains some illustrations by Steadman created at the time of the events and some photos taken by Steadman or Thompson. It was published in 2006 by Heinemann in the UK and, perhaps during the same year, by Harcourt in the US.
Fear and Loathing on the Road to Hollywood, also known as Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision, is a documentary film produced by BBC Omnibus in 1978 on the subject of Hunter S. Thompson, directed by Nigel Finch.
Gonzo Today is an internet-based publication inspired by the writing and reporting style of gonzo journalism popularized by Hunter Thompson.
The Rise and Fall of the Brown Buffalo is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Phillip Rodriguez, and written by Phillip Rodriguez, and David Ventura.
The Chicano Liberation Front (CLF) was an underground revolutionary group in California, United States, that committed dozens of bombings and arson attacks in the Los Angeles area in the early 1970s. The radical militant group publicly claimed responsibility for 28 bombings between March 1970 and July 1971 in a taped message sent to the Los Angeles Free Press. Their targets were typically banks, schools and supermarkets. They also claimed responsibility for a bomb at Los Angeles City Hall. The Chicano Liberation Front was also more than likely responsible for explosions at a downtown federal building and at the Los Angeles Hall of Justice, although those incidents remain officially unsolved.
