Gonzo

Hunter S. Thompson influenced me to be skeptical of politicians and people with agendas. His irreverence towards them, and the fact that he got away with it and made a living from it, exposed their weaknesses to people like me. The first book of his that I read was Hell's Angels. David Yeates and I read it when we were in high school back in the late 60s. We thought we were pretty cool to be reading about such real outlaws. In Hammond, Louisiana in those days Honda 50s were cool and Honda 90s were big bikes. A Harley was California and the Angels. I was a junior at LSU when Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas hit the scene. To quote the phrase of the day "it blew me away." I still have my original first edition in dust jacket (though price clipped) in very good condition. On the rear flyleaf of the DJ is this quote from Thompson "As true Gonzo journalism, this doesn't really make it - and even if it did, I couldn't possibly admit it. Only a goddam lunatic would write a thing like this and then claim it was all true." I also have in my collection the following first editions in dust jackets; Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72; Songs of the Doomed; and The Rum Diaries. In view of his decision to take his own life I thought perhaps the following quote which is on the page following the dedication page of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas would be appropo. "He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man" -Dr. Johnson. Thompson spent some time in Mobile and The Eastern Shore in the 1970's. My friends Skip Jones and Lewis Mayson are among those who met and conversed and partied with him at the time.