happy birthday, Hunter Thompson

Born on July 18, 1937; five years dead and still living in the printed word, and in movies, as never before. If you haven’t read HST’s letters, do so, particularly Vol. I which takes him through the beginning of his career to the completion of Hell’s Angels and prior to The Rolling Stone days . I hope the Johnny Depp movie based on The Rum Diary adds a human side to the Gonzo image. Letters Vol. 1 is free of Gonzo babble, and you get a solid picture of Thompson’s  energy, anxieties, pleasures and his dream of writing fiction. How that desire to create stories––compelling worlds––and his work in journalism eventually influenced one another is still a story whose pieces are being put together.  Check out the Hunter S. Thompson Books website for  a complete bibliography of the newspaper and magazine stories, information on various editions of his books, links on the Beats, and a very good listing of related sites. Also see the Owl Farm blog by his wife, Anita.