We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. I remember saying something like "I feel a bit lightheaded; maybe you should drive...." And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car, which was going about a hundred miles an hour with the top down to Las Vegas. And a voice was screaming: "Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?"
Then it was quiet again. My attorney had taken his shirt off and was pouring beer on his chest, to facilitate the tanning process. "What the hell are you yelling about?" he muttered, staring up at the sun with his eyes closed and covered with wraparound Spanish sunglasses. "Never mind," I said. "It's your turn to drive." I hit the brakes and aimed the Great Red Shark toward the shoulder of the highway. No point mentioning those bats, I thought. The poor bastard will see them soon enough.
-- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Hunter S. Thompson
HunterStocktonThompson, gonzo journalist, was born in Louisville Kentucky in 1937. By the age of 10, he was writing for his neighborhood newspaper. During the fall of 1954 his father, Jack Thompson died. In June 1956, Hunter arrested for robbery and served time. After 2 years in the armed forces, Thompson began his career as a freelance writer. His articles have appeared in many magazines such as The Reporter, The Nation, Rolling Stone and many other papers and magazines.
In 1967, Thompson published his first book, "The Hells Angels" an account of about a year spent hanging out with the infamous Hells Angels. The New York Times book review said "Thompson has presented us with a close view of a world most of us would never encounter. His language is brilliant, his eye remarkable."
In 1970, Hunter S Thompson ran for sheriff of the town he lives in Aspen, Colorado. With posters portraying a fist and the slogan "it never got weird enough for me" he narrowly lost the campaign. When Hunter S Thompson wrote "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" in 1971, that sealed his reputation as a genius. Covering the Mint 400 for a magazine, he goes into Las Vegas to find the heart of the American dream. What follows is a account of what happens in a long and paranoid drug trip. His trials and tribulations thwarting the law and all common decency will make you laugh and shudder at the same time. Tom Wolfe pronounced Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to be "a scorching epochal sensation."
Thompson's next book was "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail," another journey into the way he chooses to describe things. In this book, he describes the presidential campaign on 1972 between Nixon and McGovern in his own words as he follows them around campaigning. After that Thompson produced "The Great Shark Hunt," following in Thompson's opinion, "the death of the American dream."
Another book by Thompson, was "Generation of Swine" which was nominated for the Pulitzer prize. This book is about the 80's and how we are "the doomed generation." This was the second volume of the gonzo papers. Thompson's latest book, "Better than Sex" another political story about the 1992 presidential campaign taking the story "from the heart of the great American beast."
Lately Thompson has been battling it out with the courts and cops. In 1995, he was arrested for driving under the influence and was arrested. He hopes to beat those charges on the account that the cops were lying. He lives in a fortified compound outside of Aspen, and enjoys his privacy.
See also: GonzoJournalism
Source: http://www.banyantree.org/studentwork/jarrod/abouthunter.htm