Hunter S. Thompson

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Lore & Background

The term gonzo was first used in connection with Hunter S. Thompson by The Boston Globe magazine editor Bill Cardoso in 1970. Cardoso described Thompson's article "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," written for the June 1970 edition of Scanlan's Monthly, as "pure Gonzo journalism." Cardoso said gonzo was South Boston Irish slang describing the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon. He also said it was a corruption of the Canadian French word gonzeaux, meaning 'shining path,' though this is disputed. Another speculation is that the word may have been inspired by the 1960 hit song "Gonzo" by rhythm and blues pianist James Booker. The 2013 documentary Bayou Maharaja: The Tragic Genius of James Booker quotes Thompson's literary executor as saying the song was the origin of the term. In 2025, David S. Wills, author of High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism, discovered that Cardoso had found the word in an article he had edited for The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine about countercultural icon Baba Ram Dass, where "gonzo" was used "with the context suggesting 'going wild' or 'losing control' on a hallucinogenic substance." The original article said Dass "smoked pot and went gonzo on STP, the most powerful hallucinogenic ever concocted."

Thompson based his style on William Faulkner's notion that "fiction is often the best fact." While the things he wrote about are basically true, he used satirical devices to drive his points home. He often wrote about recreational drugs and alcohol use, which added subjective flair to his reporting. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas followed the Mint 400 piece in 1971 and included a main character named Raoul Duke, accompanied by his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, with defining art by Ralph Steadman. Although this book is considered a prime example of gonzo journalism, Thompson regarded it as a failed experiment. He had intended it to be an unedited record of everything he did as it happened, but he edited the book five times before publication. Thompson would instigate events himself, often in a prankish or belligerent manner, and then document both his actions and those of others. Notoriously neglectful of deadlines, Thompson often annoyed his editors because he submitted articles late, "too late to be edited, yet still in time for the printer." Historian Douglas Brinkley said gonzo journalism requires virtually no rewriting and frequently uses transcribed interviews and verbatim telephone conversations. Thompson said in an interview for the online edition of The Atlantic, "Objective journalism is one of the main reasons American politics has been allowed to be so corrupt for so long. You can't be objective about Nixon."

Reader's Guide

Hunter S. Thompson's significance lies in his role as the popularizer of gonzo journalism, a style he developed beginning with his 1970 article "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved." The term was coined by editor Bill Cardoso. Thompson's approach involved a first-person participatory style where the author is a protagonist, drawing power from a combination of social critique and self-satire. He used sarcasm, humour, exaggeration, and profanity. Thompson was among the forefathers of the New Journalism movement. He said in the February 15, 1973, issue of Rolling Stone, "If I'd written the truth I knew for the past ten years, about 600 people—including me—would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism." His book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, serialized in 1971, is considered a prime example of gonzo journalism, though Thompson regarded it as a failed experiment. He edited the book five times before publication. Thompson felt that objectivity in journalism was a myth. When asked whether there was a difference between gonzo journalism and New Journalism, Thompson answered, "Unlike Tom Wolfe or Gay Talese, for instance, I almost never try to reconstruct a story. They're both much better reporters than I am, but then I don't really think of myself as a reporter." Thompson's influence is reflected in the website Gonzo Today, which features a top banner by Thompson's longtime illustrator Ralph Steadman. Work of James O'Keefe and Jim Acosta has been compared to gonzo journalism.

Did You Know?

• The term "gonzo" was first used in 1970 by Boston Globe editor Bill Cardoso to describe Thompson's article "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved."
• Cardoso said gonzo was South Boston Irish slang for the last man standing after an all-night drinking marathon.
• Thompson said in the February 15, 1973, issue of Rolling Stone that absolute truth is "a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism."
• Thompson regarded Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas as a failed experiment because he edited the book five times before publication, contrary to his goal of an unedited record.
• In 2025, researcher David S. Wills discovered that Cardoso found the word "gonzo" in an article about Baba Ram Dass, where it meant 'going wild' or 'losing control' on a hallucinogenic substance.