Savage Journey
Hunter S. Thompson and the Weird Road to Gonzo
-
-
5.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $19.99
-
- $19.99
Publisher Description
A superbly crafted study of Hunter S. Thompson’s literary formation, achievement, and continuing relevance.
Savage Journey is a "supremely crafted" study of Hunter S. Thompson's literary formation and achievement. Focusing on Thompson's influences, development, and unique model of authorship, Savage Journey argues that his literary formation was largely a San Francisco story. During the 1960s, Thompson rode with the Hell's Angels, explored the San Francisco counterculture, and met talented editors who shared his dissatisfaction with mainstream journalism. Peter Richardson traces Thompson's transition during this time from New Journalist to cofounder of Gonzo journalism. He also endorses Thompson's later claim that he was one of the best writers using the English language as both a musical instrument and a political weapon. Although Thompson's political commentary was often hyperbolic, Richardson shows that much of it was also prophetic.
Fifty years after the publication of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and more than a decade after his death, Thompson's celebrity continues to obscure his literary achievement. This book refocuses our understanding of that achievement by mapping Thompson's influences, probing the development of his signature style, and tracing the reception of his major works. It concludes that Thompson was not only a gifted journalist, satirist, and media critic, but also the most distinctive American voice in the second half of the twentieth century.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Richardson (No Simple Highway), a humanities professor at San Francisco State, traces the literary development of Hunter S. Thompson, particularly during his stint in San Francisco in the 1960s, in this insightful biography. Richardson sets out to "take Thompson seriously as a writer," and makes a case that "there was nothing inevitable about... Thompson's celebrity," nor did his work come from any "shortcut, pharmaceutical or otherwise." Thompson's "gonzo" journalism, Richardson writes, was the result of his long apprenticeship as a writer, which began in his home state Kentucky, where he started contributing to a friend's sports newsletter at age 11, and culminated in his work for Rolling Stone beginning in the late ‘60s. To Richardson, Thompson hit his stride in the early '70s with the publications of "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (both of the Fear and Loathing books being originally serialized in Rolling Stone). Richardson successfully captures Thompson's lasting impact, positing him as the intellectual face of Rolling Stone and a thinker who anticipated Donald Trump's politics. Literature lovers will find much to consider, as will readers interested in an artist's struggle to develop a voice.
