Hunter S. Thompson: The American Journalist

Hunter S. Thompson: Rise of Gonzo Journalism
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In 1988, Hunter S. Thompson published a collection of his newspaper columns called the Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s, where he described the people as “scumsuckers” or “pig-sucking lunatics” due to his great hatred towards corrupt American politicians, especially those who are ignorant enough to serve the manipulative authority (Stephenson, 2012). This is Hunter S. Thompson’s personal style of journalism that he is famous for. He was the pioneer of “Gonzo Journalism”. Unlike traditional journalism where facts are correlated with objective reasoning, he writes his articles imbued with emotionally charged combination of societal critique and self-involvement in the narrative, which is based on his own personal subjective story as part of the report (Marshall, 2017). However, in order to fully appreciate the Hunter S. Thompson's style of journalism, his biography, journalism highlights, and his views about journalism should be further studied to understand how he became one of the most famous unconventional journalists of all time.
Biography
How Hunter S. Thompson became a Journalist
On July 18, 1937, Hunter Stockton Thompson was born in Louisville, Kentucky. Thompson belonged to a poor household due to the sudden death of his father, Jack Thompson, when he was 14 years old. Hunter and his two brothers were brought up by their mother who was known for her alcohol addiction to cope for the loss of her husband (Hunter S. Thompson, n.d.). This part of Hunter S. Thompson's hard youth greatly foreshadows the development of his ill behavior in his later years. Her mother is a librarian and introduced to him a knack for reading books and creative writing at a young age. In high school, he joined the Athenaeum Literary Association where he wrote columns in his school’s newsletters. However, his high school years were rough as he was in early trouble with the law (Whitmer, 1993). He was arrested for robbery in 1956 leading him to miss his own graduation. Luckily, the judge offered him a choice on whether to serve his sentence in prison or join the US Air Force. He chose to join the Air Force in 1956 and further developed his career in journalism, where he wrote about everything he hated about the military (Hunter S. Thompson Biography, 2017).
Figure 1. Hunter S. Thompson in his Colorado Cabin “Owl Farm”
Highlights of Hunter S. Thompson’s Journalism career: Early Years
While serving the military, he applied for a writing job in The Command Courier as a sports editor but his career in the Air Force was not long because of his constant insubordination with his superiors (Whitmer, 1993). He often rebelled using defamatory statements and he was immediately discharged out of the military in 1958 (Hunter S. Thompson Biography, 2017). Afterwards, he worked in Time Magazine as a copyboy where he makes copies of different articles and books, especially the works of his favorite authors F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms to learn the way on how these literary masterpieces were written (Hunter S. Thompson, n.d.).
He also worked as a journalist in Brazil, married in the Colorado, worked in Puerto Rico, then returned in the US to work as a freelance journalist in San Francisco. While in San Francisco, the magazine company, The Nation, commissioned Thompson to write about the rough headed motorcycle gang in California called the Hell's Angels (Doyle, 2019).
In 1965, Thompson engaged with the activities of the Hell's Angels to research their lifestyle in riding motorcycles, loafing around and plotting events. Thompson even described their fashion statement and the relevance of their insignia to the group. He pointed out that all members wear a patch to present the proud nature of the of the Angels. However, a small disagreement between Thompson and one of the Angels lead to a one-sided beat down of Thompson by the gang members where he suffered multiple rib injuries and facial bruises. He involved himself for more than one year before being beat down by the gang members (Thompson, 1966). He then published his experience with the group in his 1966 book, Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. This book was a huge hit in the market and contributed to the start of Thompson's successful career as a journalist (Marshall, 2017).
Highlights of Hunter S. Thompson’s Journalism career: Middle years
After the success of his Hell's Angels book, multiple editors wanted a piece of his work into their own newsletters and magazines. One editor, Jim Silberman of Random House, wanted a piece that is about the “Death of the American Dream or Who killed the American Dream?” (Wright, 2009). Thompson did not know how to start the project as he was not fully proficient about the concept of the “American Dream.” In order help Thompson create the project, Silberman persuaded Thompson to attend the 1968 Democratic Convention to interview the protesters in the rally about their views about the American Dream. However, Thompson was shocked on how the police reacted with the mass dispersal of the protesters where Thompson witness severe police brutality that is worse than any beat-down he experienced with the Hell's Angels (Wright, 2009). Thompson stated that, “it’s hard to explain except as a final loss of faith in whatever this country was supposed to stand for, all that bullshit in the history books” (Wright, 2009). This experience was one of the main contributing factors in developing a new style of journalism that would express the reality of anger, frustration and despair to the readers. Additionally, this experience made him skeptic about politics and governance in America.
In 1970, Thompson was tasked to cover the Kentucky...