After cherry-picking through this massive tome of 60s and 70s articles written by Hunter S. Thompson (the Gonzo Papers Vol. 1, if you will) I have reached the following conclusion: 50% of what the man wrote is breathtaking, insightful, hilarious and painful. The other 50%, as the man says, isn’t writing, it’s typing. On and on with ludicrous political predictions. Can you imagine what his pages looked like before they were edited? Or maybe that’s the point. Maybe no one edited him at all. Maybe they were afraid to. Anyway, don’t focus on the negative. Like I say, lots of gold can be found here. Many of the articles reprinted here are from the era of “Las Vegas” when the man was unstoppable. Also — numerous references to suicide. Kinda eerie.
A classic case of celebrity damaging a writer. Until he became one, he had grown into a flawless writer who knew himself and his style inside-and-out. Once he became aware of that (right around the time of Campaign Trail), he slowly started to become a parody of himself, albeit a parody everyone wanted him to be at that time. As noted, when he was at the top of his form, no one could touch him.
What amazes me now is how he could make a living for decades on end via mostly freelancing and the occasional book. That’s a nearly impossible way of life these days — maybe it always has been. But you get the impression in the 60s and 70s that it could be done more easily, or that writers of his stature would make a truckload of money on every story (with an expense account).