Hunter S. Thompson Collection » (3 paperbacks)

To summarize Hunter S. Thompson s career is nearly impossible. His writing covered sports, politics, personal letters, social commentary, and Gonzo Journalism -- his own brand of hyper-subjective observation of nearly everything that crosses his path. A welcomed troublemaker, the name Hunter S. Thompson conjures the image of a man bearing firearms and whiskey, daring his readers to question their realities.

Hunter S. Thompson's seminal first three volumes of the "Gonzo Papers" are now available in a complete paperback set.

Hunter S. Thompson's writing has had a profound effect on the literary world and contemporary culture. His signature searing commentary and outrageous humor once prompted a friend to comment, "I don't know what the f*** you're doing, but it's changed everything. It's totally gonzo." And from that moment, a new journalistic movement was born; a direct descendant of the New Journalism. Long after his death, his work remains brilliant, relevant, and exceptionally entertaining.

"Thompson is a genuinely unique figure in American journalism, a superb comic writer and a ferociously outspoken social and political critic." —The Washington Post

"Hunter Thompson is the most creatively crazy and vulnerable of the New Journalists. His ideas are brilliant and honorable and valuable the literary equivalent of Cubism: all rules are broken." —Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

"His hallucinated vision strikes one as having been, after all, the sanest." —Nelson Algren

"He amuses; he frightens; he flirts with doom. His achievement is substantial." —Garry Wills

The Great Shark Hunt
Originally published in 1979, this is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, this collection offers highly charged entries, including the first Thompson piece to be dubbed "gonzo" ("The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970). From this essay, a new form of journalism sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.

Generation of Swine
The second volume of the legendary Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's bestselling "Gonzo Papers" was first published in 1988. Here, against a backdrop of late-night tattoo sessions and soldier-of-fortune trade shows, Thompson is at his apocalyptic best — covering emblematic events such as the 1987-88 presidential campaign, with Vice President George Bush, Sr., fighting for his life against Republican competitors like Alexander Haig, Pat Buchanan, and Pat Robertson; detailing the GOP's obsession with drugs and drug abuse; all the while capturing momentous social phenomena as they occurred, like the rise of cable, satellite TV, CNN, and the 24-hour news cycle. Thompson showcases his inimitable talent for social and political analysis, eerily prescient, incisive, and enduring.

Songs of the Doomed
In this third and most extraordinary volume of the Gonzo Papers, first published in 1990, Thompson spares no one from his hilarious, remarkably astute social commentary. With his trademark insight and passion about the state of American politics and culture, Songs of the Doomed charts the long, strange trip from Kennedy to Quayle in freewheeling gonzo style. Spanning four decades — 1950 to 1990 — Thompson is at the top of his form while fleeing New York for Puerto Rico, riding with the Hell's Angels, investigating Las Vegas sleaze, grappling with the "Dukakis problem," and finally, detailing his infamous lifestyle bust, trial documents, and Fourth Amendment battle with the Law. These tales — often sleazy, brutal, and crude — are only the tip of what Jack Nicholson called, "the most baffling human iceberg of our time." This is vintage Thompson.