Like any real - life legend , there are many myth surrounding the life and work of Hunter S. Thompson . But in Thompson ’s case , most of those stories — specially the more flaky ones — are absolutely dead on target . The founder of the “ Gonzo journalism ” move is one of the most gripping figures of the twentieth century . Here are some thing you might not have known about the nonconcentric writer , who was born on July 18 , 1937 .
1. Hunter S. Thompson was named after a famous Scottish surgeon.
Hunter S. Thompson was reportedly named after one of his mother ’s ancestors , a Scotch surgeon named Nigel John Hunter . But Hunter was n’t just your ravel - of - the - grinder operating surgeon . In a 2004interviewwith theIndependent , Thompson contribute along a written matter ofThe Reluctant Surgeon , a Biography of Nigel John Hunter , a biography of his namesake , which register : " A gruff Scotsman , Hunter has been described as the most significant natural scientist between Aristotle and Darwin , the Shakespeare of medicine and the neat man the British ever produced . He was the first to trace the lymphatic system . He perform the first human stilted insemination . He was the greatest aggregator of anatomical specimens in history . He prescribed the orthopedic brake shoe that allowed Lord Byron to take the air . "
When press about what that description had to do with him , Thompson respond : " Well , I gauge that might be the enigma of my selection . Good factor . "
2. Hunter S. Thompson missed his high school graduation … because he was in jail.
Just a few calendar week before he was set to calibrate from high school day , at the old age of 17 , Thompson was charged as an accessory to robbery and sentence to 60 days in jail .
“ One Nox Ralston Steenrod , who was in the Athenaeum with Hunter , was driving , and Hunter and another guy rope he experience were in the auto , ” Thompson ’s childhood friend Neville Blakemorerecalledof the incident . “ As they were driving through Cherokee Park , the other guy rope said , ‘ Stop . I want to bum a cigarette from that car . ’ masses used to go common and neck at this spot . And the guy got out and evidently go back and mugged them . The guy who was mugged grow their permit issue and traced the car , and within a very forgetful meter they were all three arrested .
“ Just before this Hunter had been blamed for a nighttime gas - station robbery , ” Blakemore added , “ and before that he and some friends got pick up for buying booze underage at Abe ’s Liquor Store on Frankfort Avenue by the tracks . So Hunter had a record , and he was already on probation . He was reach an ultimatum : jail or the military . And Hunter took the Air Force . He did n’t graduate with his class . ”
3. Hunter S. Thompson’s fellow journalist coined the termgonzo.
While covering the 1968 New Hampshire primary , Thompson suffer fellow author and editor in chief Bill Carodoso , editor in chief ofThe Boston Globe Sunday Magazine , which is where Thompson first hear him utilize the Holy Scripture “ Gonzo . ” “ It signify sort of ‘ crazy ’ or ‘ off - the - wall,’”Thompson saidin Anita Thompson’sAncient Gonzo Wisdom : interview with Hunter S. Thompson . Two year later , in June 1970 , Thompsonwrotean article forScanlan ’s Monthlyentitled “ The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved , ” which became a game - changing moment in news media because of its offbeat , somewhat frenzied manner that was write with first - mortal subjectivity .
Among the many fellow journalists who praise Thompson for the bit was Cardoso , who sent a varsity letter to Thompson that “ enunciate something like , ‘ Forget all the sh*t you ’ve been writing , this is it ; this is pure Gonzo . ’ Gonzo . Yeah , of course . That ’s what I was doing all the time . Of course , I might be mad . ” Thompson range with the word , and would habituate it himself for the first time a year later , inFear and Loathing in Las Vegas .
4. Hunter S. Thompson typed out famous novels to learn the art of writing.
for get the “ flavor ” of being a author , Thompson used to retype his favourite novels in full . “ [ H]is true framework and Heron was F. Scott Fitzgerald,”Louis Menand wroteinThe New Yorker . “ He used to type out page fromThe Great Gatsby , just to get the feeling , he said , of what it was like to write that way , and Fitzgerald ’s novel was continually on his mind while he was working onFear and detestation in Las Vegas , which was published , after a prolonged and agonizing compositional incubus , in 1972 . ”
" If you type out somebody ’s work , you learn a pile about it,”Thompson saidin 1997 . “ Amazingly it ’s like music . And from typing out parts of Faulkner , Hemingway , Fitzgerald — these were writers that were very self-aggrandizing in my lifespan and the lives of the people around me — so yeah , I want to con from the best I guess . "
5. Hunter S. Thompson ran for sheriff in Colorado.
In 1970 , Thompson ran for sheriff of Pitkin County , Colorado on what he called the Freak Power just the ticket . Among hispolitical tactics : shaving his head so that he could refer to his antagonist as his “ long - haired opponent , ” promising to eat mescaline while on duty , and campaigning to rename Aspen “ Fat City ” todeter"greed heads , kingdom - rapers , and other human Canis aureus from capitalise on the name ' Aspen . ' " Unfortunately , he lost .
6. Hunter S. Thompson stole a memento from Ernest Hemingway.
In 1964 , three years after Ernest Hemingway commit suicide at his cabin in Ketchum , Idaho , Thompson traveled to the belated author ’s home in fiat towrite“What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum ? ” While there , harmonize to his widow woman , Hunter “ got get up in the import ” and took “ a big pair of elk horns over the front door . ” In 2016 , more than a decennium after Thompson ’s death , Anitareturnedthe antlers to the Hemingway family — which is something she and Hunter had always contrive to do . “ They were tender and kind of tickled … they were so open and grateful , there was no weirdness , ” Anita said .
7. Hunter S. Thompson once used the inside of musician John Oates’s colorado cabin as his personal parking space.
in the first place this calendar month , musician John Oates — the latter half of Hall & Oates — shared a chronicle about his spread in Woody Creek , Colorado , just outside of Aspen , which is presently on the market for $ 6 million . In aninterviewwith Colorado Public Radio , Oates remember how when he first purchase the cabin , there was a red convertible park in spite of appearance . “ I happened to ask the real estate federal agent who owned the convertible , and he allege ‘ your neighbor Hunter Thompson , ’ ” Oates said . “ Why is he keeping his automobile in a slice of property he does n’t own ? The real estate of the realm federal agent looked at me and said ‘ It ’s Woody Creek , you ’ll figure this out . It ’s a different kind of berth . ’ ” After broadcast several letters to his neighbour to remember his vehicle , Oates took matters into his own workforce and posit the car on Thompson ’s lawn . Oates said that the two became protagonist , but never mentioned the incident .
8. Hunter S. Thompson’s ashes were shot out of a cannon at his funeral.
On February 20 , 2005 — at the age of 67 — Thompson committed suicide . But Thompson was n’t about to forget this reality quietly . In August of that year , in accordance with his wishes , Thompson ’s ash were shoot into the air from a shank while fireworks filled the sky .
“ He have it away burst , " his widow woman , Anita , tell ESPN , which wrote that , “ The individual jubilation include actors Bill Murray and Johnny Depp , rock bands , blowup dolls and plenty of strong drink to honor Thompson , who killed himself six months ago at the historic period of 67 . ”
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