Biography
Hunter Thompson is the founder of gonzo journalism, the author of the cult American novel "Fear and disgust in Las Vegas." For his long life in 67 years, the writer settled all the varieties of drugs, but did not lose the sobriety of the mind. Despite his own sins, Thompson branded in journalistic materials, someone deserved, and justified innocent, for example, the Angels of Hell, which is accused of trade for prohibited substances, murders and rack.Childhood and youth
Hunter Stockton Thompson, born on July 18, 1937 in Louisville, Kentucky, became the first of the three sons of Virginia Ray Davison and Jack Robert Thompson. Mother worked as a librarian, father, veteran of the First World War, - Specialist in state insurance. The firstborn was named after Grandparents on the mother line, Stockton Ray and Lucier Hunter.
In 1952, when Hantera turned 14 years old, his father died. To contain children alone was not easy, so Virginia was looking for a consolation in a glass. In the school years, Thompson was interested in sports and literature, consisted of the Ateneomeum magazine Association. Its members, as a rule, were representatives of the rich families of Louisville, including Porter Bibb, the first editor of the Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1955, the editorial office "Ateneum" excluded Thompson from its ranks. The reason was the problem with the law: the guy was in the car with a man who robbed the store. He was sentenced to 60 days of imprisonment as a permissor of the criminal. The arrest fell to the final exams, and the school leadership did not allow the Hantera to pass tests outside the walls of the institution. The future writer never received education.
A week after the exit from Thompson's prison was enrolled in the US Air Force. During the service based on Eglin in Florida, the young man as a sports correspondent of The Command Courier newspaper released the first professional material. Since then, he wrote a lot of articles on sports topics, however, under the pseudonym - soldiers were forbidden to disclose their names.
Thompson was dismissed from the US Air Force in November 1957 with the qualification of the first class pilot.
Books and journalism
In the youth, Thompson was a scandalist. From Time magazine, he was fired for non-interference, from The Middletown Daily Record newspaper - because Hunter quarreled with the owner of a local restaurant, which turned out to be an advertiser of publication. Once in Big Sura, California, published unfinished feedback on the settlement, for which he was expelled from the city.
In this timeless period of biography, Hunter Thompson wrote Prince Jellyfish. The debut product to this day is not published. The Guardian magazine claims that
"An autobiographical novel about a boy from Louisville, who goes to a big city and fights with stunches for a minute of glory."In the 1960s, during the stay of Thompson in Puerto Rico, "Rum Diary" was born. The novel tells about the journalist named Paul Kemp, who moves from New York to San Juan to work in the Daily News newspaper. "Rum diary" would not be published if Johnny Depp once, a close friend of Thompson, did not find a manuscript among many other works. The novel was published in 1998. Already after the death of the writer, in 2011 the actor fulfilled the main role in the adaptation of the work.
In 1965, Carey Makuilliams, the editor of The Nation magazine, hired Thompson to write history about the world's largest motoclub "Hells Angels". After the release of the article, the journalist received an offer from bikers to go to the journey. A year later, the book "Angels of Ada: a strange and terrible saga of extra-deposited motorcycle gangs" (1966). According to the club members, "this is the only truthful thing," ever written about them.
The success of the novel allowed Thompson to easily hit the lanes of The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Harper's and, of course, become a famous American writer. So, in early 1968, he was offered to sign a military tax protest of writers and editors, which suggested a refusal to pay taxes in protest against War in Vietnam.
Thompson planned to talk about the "death of the American Dream" times, that is, about the degeneration of the vital ideals of the US residents in both the material and in the spiritual sense. The idea later embodied in the recognizable novel of the writer "Fear and disgust in Las Vegas".
In 1970, Tompson's "Derby in Kentucky decorated and erased" appeared in Scanlan's Monthly. Although the material was ordered for a sports magazine, less attention is paid to the jumps. The journalist focused on the description of the audience. As the story, people are increasingly beginning to resemble animals:
"Screaming, stupid, moral decomposing aborigines."
This article is considered the first text written in the style of Gonzo (English. Gonzo - "Chokutnaya", "Crazy"). Gonzo is the direction of journalism for which subjectivism is characterized, the story of the first person is characterized, since the reporter is not a viewer, but a participant of events. Sarcasm is allowed, the use of quotation, hyperball, abnormative vocabulary. Almost all the works of Hunter Thompson are written in this style.
For the first time, the word "Gonzo" is used in the novel "Fear and disgust in Las Vegas. Wild journey in the heart of the American Dream "(1972). History was born during the trip Thompson and the lawyer of Oscar Zeta Akosta to Las Vegas for information about the murder of the Los Angeles Times journalist.
Roman is written on the first person by a journalist named Raul Duk, who, together with Advisor Dr. Gonzo goes to Las Vegas to highlight the MINT 400 race. In search of an American dreams, drugs and alcohol are helpful to them, which are scored a trunk. From the accepted substances heroes are experiencing hallucinations, wander, even commit crimes.
Gonzo-Roman became the standard of American literature of the 1970s. His plot served as the basis for the film "Fear and Hate in Las Vegas" with Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro starring. Depp lived with Thompson for several months to take his habits, and during this time men became close friends. The film, like the book, became a cult.
Since the late 1970s, Thompson has released its journalistic materials written before the Gonzo period, and articles from Rolling Stone. The cycle under the heading "Documents Gonzo" includes 4 volumes: "Big Shark Hunt" (1991), "Pig Generation" (1984), "Songs of the Doomed" (1990) and "better than sex" (1995).
One of the final books Thompson was the collection "The Kingdom of Fear" (2003), the main theme of which is an uprising against power. Many of the stories are associated with the effects of terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. "The kingdom of fear" is called the memorars of the writer.
Personal life
On May 19, 1963, Hunter Thompson's wife became his long-standing girlfriend Sandra Dun Konklin. Lovers have repeatedly tried to have children, but 3 pregnancies ended with miscarriages, two newborns died in infancy. Their only son Juan Fitzgerald Thompson was born on March 23, 1964.
In 1980, Hunter and Sandra divorced, but always remained close friends.
On April 23, 2003, the writer married his assistant Annight Beymuk. Their personal life was happy until the death of the writer.
Death
On February 20, 2005, Hunter Thompson died from a firearm in the head. The tragedy occurred in Woody Creek, Colorado. The writer talked to his wife Anita by phone, when weighing the gun of the pistol.
Son Juan and his spouse, Govanov, Govanikov, Gennifer, took a shot for the sound of a fallen book. Later, Juan discovered the body. In memory of the father, he fired three times into the sky from a shotgun. In the printing type of the writer there was a sheet of paper with the date "February 22, 2005" and the only word - "Advisor". Later in the Rolling Stone, the alleged posthumous note of Thompson under the heading "Football Completed" was published:
"No games. No bombs No walks. No fun. No sailing. 67. This is 17 years more than 50. On 17 more than what I needed or what I wanted. Boring. I'm always evil. No fun for anyone. 67. You become greedy. We behave on your age. Relax, it will not hurt. "Tompson's environment informed the press that recently the man was depressed due to old age and health problems. In the will a writer indicated how to be buried. He wanted him to be cremated, and the dust were launched into the sky from a gun, which would stand on a 45-meter pedestal right in the courtyard of his house.
Johnny Depp decided to fulfill the last will. At his order, a 50-meter gun was built, judging by the photo - in the form of a symbol of a gonzo, a six-pressure fist, compressing the flower of Peyot. The gun shot on August 20, 2005.
To say goodbye to Hunter Thompson came Jack Nicholson, John Cusak, Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro, Sean Penn, Senators USA John Kerry and George McGurne, musicians Lyle Lovhette and David Amram. The funeral cost Johnny Depp $ 3 million.
Quotes
"It is impossible to miss anything that never possessed." "The most revolutionary deed, which one can be done in modern society is to be happy." "If I wrote the whole truth about what I learned in the last 10 years, about 600 A person, including me, would now rot in prisons from Rio to Seattle. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous thing in the context of professional journalism. "" In a society, where everyone is guilty, the only crime is caught. In the world of thieves, the only mortal sin is nonsense. "Bibliography
- 1967 - "Hell Angels"
- 1971 - "Fear and disgust in Las Vegas"
- 1973 - "Fear and disgust of the election race - 72"
- 1979 - "Big Shark Hunt"
- 1983 - "Curse of Hawaii"
- 1988 - "Pig Generation"
- 1990 - "Songs of the doomed"
- 1994 - "Better than sex"
- 1998 - "Rum Diary"
- 2003 - "The Kingdom of Fear"