"Buy the ticket, take the ride," was a favorite slogan of Hunter S.
Thompson, and it pretty much defined both his work and his life. Fear
and Loathing at Rolling Stone showcases the roller-coaster of a career
at the magazine that was his literary home.
Jann S. Wenner, the outlaw journalist's friend and editor for nearly
thirty-five years, has assembled articles that begin with Thompson's
infamous run for sheriff of Aspen on the Freak Party ticket in 1970 and
end with his final piece on the Bush-Kerry showdown of 2004. In between
is Thompson's remarkable coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign--a
miracle of journalism under pressure--and plenty of attention paid to
Richard Nixon, his bête noire; encounters with Muhammad Ali, Bill
Clinton, and the Super Bowl; and a lengthy excerpt from his acknowledged
masterpiece, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Woven throughout is selected correspondence between Wenner and Thompson,
most of it never before published. It traces the evolution of a personal
and professional relationship that helped redefine modern American
journalism, and also presents Thompson through a new prism as he pursued
his lifelong obsession: The life and death of the American Dream.