the American counterculture writer, has been found dead at his home in Colorado.
Thompson’s son, Juan, found his body. He said the 67-year-old shot himself.
He is best-known for his 1972 account of a drug-addled Nevada trip, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Other books are Hells Angels and Generation of Swine.
Thompson pioneered “gonzo journalism”, a factual style in which the writer was an essential part of the story, and was an acute observer of American life.
Decadence and depravity
In a statement to the Aspen Daily News, Thompson’s son, Juan, said:
On February 20, Dr Hunter S Thompson took his life with a gunshot to the head at his fortified compound in Woody Creek, Colorado.
Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family. Juan
Tricia Louthis, spokeswoman for the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office, said it appeared the writer had committed suicide.
We do have confirmation that Hunter Thompson was found dead this evening of an apparent self-inflicted wound Tricia Louthis
Thompson was known for his observations on the decadence and depravity of American life.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas became a psychedelic classic, telling the story of Thompson’s drug-hazed road trip across the western US in search of the American Dream.
The story was eventually made into a movie starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro.
Author Martin A Lee, who met and interviewed Thompson on a number of occasions, told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme that Thompson’s death was “sad” but “not surprising”, describing him as someone who “lived on the edge”.
He said:
[Thompson] did bequeath a very significant body of literature and journalism.
It is wonderful and exuberant writing that opened a cultural space for other writers to follow. Martin A Lee
Recent work
Thompson also wrote the satire Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72. He told Associated Press news agency in 2003
Fiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairytale artist. You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you’re writing about before you alter it. Hunter S. Thompson
The writer’s first ever novel, The Rum Diary, written in 1959, was only published in 1998.
His most recent work was Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness, a collection of his columns.
His last column on ESPN
Just prior to his death Hunter S Thompson invented a new sport, Shotgun Golf, with Bill Murray. His description:
The game consists of one golfer, one shooter and a field judge. The purpose of the game is to shoot your opponent’s high-flying golf ball out of the air with a finely-tuned 12-gauge shotgun, thus preventing him (your opponent) from lofting a 9-iron approachshot onto a distant “green”. Points are scored by blasting your opponent’s shiny new Titleist out of the air and causing his shot to fail miserably. After that, you trade places and equipment, and move on to round two. Hunter S. Thompson