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Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream » (First Touchstone Edition 10th Anniversar)

Book cover image of Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream by Hunter S. Thompson

Authors: Hunter S. Thompson
ISBN-13: 9780743240994, ISBN-10: 0743240995
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing Group
Date Published: December 2002
Edition: First Touchstone Edition 10th Anniversar

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Author Biography: Hunter S. Thompson

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.

Book Synopsis

First published in 1990, Songs of the Doomed is back in print — by popular demand! In this third and most extraordinary volume of the Gonzo Papers, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson recalls high and hideous moments in his thirty years in the Passing Lane — and no one is safe from his hilarious, remarkably astute social commentary.

With Thompson's 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 Thompson's freewheeling, inimitable 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."

Songs of the Doomed is vintage Thompson — a brilliant, brazen, bawdy compilation of the greatest sound bites of Gonzo journalism from the past thirty years.

Publishers Weekly

This third installment of the Gonzo Papers is a chronologically arranged selection of stories, letters, journals and reporting, allowing readers to see how Thompson's brand of "new journalism'' has evolved over the years.

Table of Contents

Editor's Notexi
Author's Note
Let the Trials Begin3
Electricity13
Last Train from Camelot21
Note from Ralph Steadman24
The Fifties: Last Rumble in Fat City
Tarred and Feathered at the Jersey Shore29
Saturday Night at the Riviera32
Prince Jellyfish35
Hit Him Again, Jack, He's Crazy35
Interview45
Cherokee Park52
Fleeing New York60
The Sixties: What the Hell? it's Only Rock and Roll ...
Letter to Angus Cameron67
The Rum Diary69
Revisited: The Puerto Rican Problem107
The Kennedy Assassination111
Back to the U.S.A.111
Hell's Angels: Long Nights, Ugly Days, Orgy of the Doomed ...113
Midnight on the Coast Highway116
Ken Kesey: Walking with the King118
LSD-25: Res Ipsa Loquitor120
Chicago 1968: Death to the Weird122
First Visit with Mescalito126
The Seventies: Reaping the Whirlwind, Riding the Tiger
Iguana Project141
Never Apologize, Never Explain147
Vegas Witchcraft148
High-Water Mark152
Fear and Loathing153
Lies--It Was All Lies--I Couldn't Help Myself154
Ed Muskie Doomed by Ibogaine: Bizarre Drug Plot Revealed156
Washington Politics159
Summit Conference in Elko: Secret Gathering of the Power Elite161
Opening Statement: HST166
Rolling Stone: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here174
Dance of the Doomed176
Checking into the Lane Xang177
Whooping It Up with the War Junkies182
Confidential Memo to Colonel Vo Don Giang193
Memo to Jim Silberman on the Death of the American Dream197
Letter to Russell Chatham204
The Eighties: How Much Money do you Have?
Welcome to the '80s209
Love on the Palm Beach Express: The Pulitzer Divorce Trial211
Sugarloaf Key: Tales of the Swine Family230
The Silk Road: Fast Boats on the Ocean at Night235
Fishhead Boys235
The Mariel Boat Lift240
The Murder of Colonel Evans246
Letter to Ralph Steadman253
Letter to Ken Kesey261
Last Memo from the National Affairs Desk263
Memo from the Sports Desk270
Wild Sex in Sausalito272
The Dukakis Problem: Another Vicious Beating for the New Whigs275
Secret Cables to Willie Hearst281
Re: Qaddafi281
Re: The Column282
San Francisco Examiner Columns286
The New Dumb286
Fear and Loathing in Sacramento289
Strange Ride to Reno292
Amor Vincit Omnia294
The Death of Russell Chatham297
Editor's Note299
Whiskey Business300
I Knew the Bride When She Used to Rock and Roll303
Community of Whores306
Return to the Riviera Cafe309
Avery: Making Sense of the '60s311
German Decade: The Rise of the Fourth Reich314
Turbo Must Die318
Memo to Jay Johnson, Night Editor, San Francisco Examiner320
Warning Issued on Cocaine322
Welcome to the Nineties: Welcome to Jail
Editor's Note328
Nothing But Crumbs330
Arrest Warrant and Charges332
Beware335
This Is a Political Trial ...336
Thompson Hit with 5 Felonies337
Memo to Hal Haddon: Attack Now338
The Art of Hitting the One Iron340
Motion and Order to Dismiss the Case341
Hunter Hails Legal Triumph for Americans342
Press Release, Owl Farm, 5/31/90344
Final Analysis: Gerald Goldstein, Esq.346
A Letter to The Champion: A Publication of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Keith Stroup, Executive Director352
Later That Year ...355
Author's Note357

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