RIP

Mostly a collection of letters written to various people throughout Dr. Thompsons life.

This huge tome of Hunter Thompson's correspondence took me approximately two months to read, but that doesn't mean that I didn't like it. In fact, I enjoyed it quite a bit. However, the format leant itself to being put down for extended periods of time before returning to it. There's not much of any connection or narrative flow between one letter and the next, and most of the time, the other half of Thompson's correspondence is not reproduced here, so the reader is left to guess at what exactly has inspired him to hurl invective at this person or that one. That's most of what he does in this book, too--hurl invective, both at people he likes and people he's sincerely angry with. His correspondence with Oscar Acosta is full of such rancor, and moves over the course of the book from seeming like good-natured bickering between friends to real animosity. One wonders if Thompson and Acosta would have worked out their differences over time, were it not for the latter's untimely disappearance.

It's a lot of fun to read each individual letter, especially the lengthier ones that delve into more complicated thought processes that Thompson was working through at various stages of completing books or articles. There are several detailed outlines herein for books that were never completed, all of which are entertaining, but also of course frustrating due to the fact that we can't go read those books in full. There are also many interesting arguments back and forth between Thompson and his various publishers, in which we learn his exact feelings (generally predictable but hilarious fury) about the various edits and bowdlerizations he was forced to suffer throughout his career. It becomes clear that Thompson always took his writing very seriously, and had a lot invested in his work being read exactly the way he intended. He also got very frustrated with those who saw his "gonzo" style as just an excuse to make shit up. As far as Thompson was concerned, he was telling the truth in all of his pieces, even if he didn't always use a format that was approved by standard journalists of the time.

I wouldn't really recommend reading this book to anyone who isn't well-versed in Hunter S. Thompson's writing career; in order to be most properly enjoyed, the reader should probably already be familiar with "Hell's Angels," "Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas," "Fear And Loathing On The Campaign Trail 72," and "The Great Shark Hunt," as work that ended up in all four of these books is discussed in detail here. As I said, not that much information is given to the reader outside of the actual text of the letters, so it'll be a lot harder to keep up if you haven't read those books. If you have, though, and you're interested in an even deeper examination of Thompson's life and mindset during that period of his career, "Fear And Loathing In America" will provide you with a very entertaining read. And honestly, you'll probably be better off setting it aside every now and then and cleansing your palate with something a bit lighter before returning. Trying to take this whole book in one fell swoop would probably amount to biting off more than one can chew.

I love this book, I picked it up right after HST died. I used to bring it along to all my boring temp assignments and it was always entertaining and interesting. The only trouble was that I got so into Thompson's rash attitude that it made me really abrasive and irrational myself sometimes. But I was very impressed with a book that held my attention so well over 750 pages of personal correspondence.

When I was in college, my friends and I read Hunter S. Thompson because he was wild, fearless, funny, and took lots and lots of drugs. The mean streak that showed, say, in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas's diner-waitress scene was forgivable; we lived in mean times. The memory of Nixon was still fresh, and Nixon surrounded himself with thugs and goons like Gordon Liddy and Chuck Colson. Maybe the backbone that was needed to oppose dirty-tricksters like these required a certain insensitivity in one's character. Besides, each time he'd write something to make you uneasy, it would be followed by a passage that took your breath away, as much for its passion and idealism as for the force and gracefulness of the prose.

That passion and idealism is what makes him worth reading now. It doesn't show much after 1976 and the election of Jimmy Carter (whose personal letters to Thompson, by the way, show a broad-minded tolerance you wouldn't expect in a Southern Baptist politician). But before then, the vigor with which he wrote about politics—and the brilliance with which he expressed his core beliefs: that everybody must have a seat at the table of American democracy, and that individual freedom and representation are paramount—shone through every line of his prose, and was often breathtaking.

In addition, his pre-gonzo journalism, including especially his dispatches from South America in the mid-'60s, showed that he had real physical courage and could write straight as well as just about anybody.

But the dark side of his character was never hidden. Thompson out-Mailered Mailer as the poster villain for toxic masculinity. He was aggressive toward people in his personal life and turned from love to contempt on a dime. He loved guns, motorcycles, and danger, and he loved to start fights. He had little tenderness and dismissed fear and doubt when he would have benefited from embracing them. Anecdotal testimony portrays him as cruel to animals. He expected license due to his brilliance, and he mostly got it.

These letters display that brilliance and show that he was often deeply thoughtful about issues, if never about people. But his manic aggression makes reading him exhausting. It's tolerable when it's laced with humor, but less so when his mood fails him and he falls back on well-established personal tropes and overused phrases. "Brutal...savage...swine..." His pet phrases reveal the fascist dressed in anarchist’s clothing. When he gloried in guns and violence he sounded more like Goering than like any American hero.

I read these 600 pages of letters, but I recommend you stick with the holy trinity of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Great Shark Hunt, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 to experience the very best of Thompson. There's no need to go further.

This is a collection of letters from 1968-1976, so I am really skimming through and using it as a source book...don't know that I will ever actually be "finished" reading it

As with this first volume of letters, this collection from HST gives valuable insight into the working mind of a legend. He also provides a rare glimpse into the hell that is writing for money, from haggling with publishers and editors over fees and expenses to charting a course of action, gaining press credentials and determining a focus, for writing some of his best known articles.

This collection begins after publication of Hells Angels and takes the reader on a journey that stops at some of the most memorable moments in his career, his campaign for Sheriff of Aspen, meeting Ralph Steadman to cover the Kentucky Derby, the ill-fated assignment to write a caption on the Mint 400 that resulted in "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas," and his coverage of the '72 presidential campaign.

The book also deals with a more human side of Hunter, fretting about being able to support his family, battling to protect his land and keeping tourists and developers from destroying Aspen, and responding to retailers about faulty merchandise or news stations for shoddy reporting. His unusual character comes out when he gleefully abuses a Midwestern housewife who writes to gush about the exiting time he must have had with the infamous biker gang, or shares his appreciation for a plucky 90 year old who was offended by his language when she mistakenly chose to read an issue of Rolling Stone.

I love Hunter S. Thompson, so the collection was a fascinating read. To also stumble upon his interactions with other notable writers: Tom Wolfe, Kurt Vonnegut, William Kennedy, and Anthony Burgess was an added treat.

Fantastic stuff, filling in the gaps between the books of the era, and filling me in with his vision of the time in which I was born (1968).

I am now determined to begin as much of my correspondence as possible with "Dear (whoever), You scurvy pigfucker ... "

chill

Taking me forever to get through this book. Since I'm reading a kindle version, I have no physical idea how fat this book really is except for never-ending! I believe I am about 2/3's of the way through.

This is my favorite of the now-three books I've read by Hunter S. Thompson, which surprised me because (1) I liked Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail in 1972 and Hell's Angels fairly well, and (2) I read this book more by chance than by choice--I wanted to revisit Hunter Thompson's work, and his other more famous titles were not available at my local Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh at the time.

This book is a lightly but artfully edited collection of Thompson's correspondence over the years stated in the title. In today's world of email and text messages and Tweets and other short bursts of messaging we've become increasingly used to digesting and creating with the rise of the internet and mobile devices. Which made reading a book that consisted mainly of letters to-and-from Hunter S. Thompson between 1968-1976 extremely interesting. Thompson was a prolific correspondent, penning over 20,000 letters in his lifetime, if I remember correctly. (tk fact check the number and source). Regardless, letter-writing was a major part of Thompson's day-to-day work and social life. It was also a way of getting and receiving private information and news that today would be tweeted to the world instead of being tailored in voluminous and often very funny detail for certain recipients' eyes only.

If nothing else, this book reminded me of the utility not only of writing letters, but it reminded me how to write them well--Thompson's letters are fascinating. For anyone who's interested in the ways people try to use language to persuade, influence, coerce, intimidate, charm, and have other effects on an intended audience, this book should be high on your to-read list. 5 stars.