My Hunter S. Thompson Library

Hell's Angels, Hunter S. Thompson, c. 1966. Modern Library Edition, 1999.

This was one of four books I read while "living in my office July 15 - August 12, 2000. So many emotions -- but I can read page 261 - 263 over and over again.

The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955 - 1967, Hunter S. Thompson, c. 1997.

One of my most heavily annotated books, a soft cover copy.
This is THE definitive book of HST coming of age. A must read if you want to "know" HST.

The Great Shark Hunt: Gonzo Papers, Volume I, Hunter S. Thompson, c. 1979.

Fear and Loathing in America: The Gonzo Letters, Volume II, Hunter S. Thompson, c. 2000.

The Rum Diary, Hunter S. Thompson, c. 1998. A lifetime of work.

Posted elsewhere, March 16, 2024:

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The Book Page

Updating my introduction page on my literature page, I came across this:

Another link.

This is exactly what happened to me, from that link:

Anyway that’s the Linkhorns, po’-white-trash in the 1930s in east Texas, and that’s where Algren left them in A Walk on the Wild Side. 

So here’s something kind of cool: Hunter S. Thompson picks up the story of the Linkhorns in his book, Hell’s Angels, and although it’s just a vignette he continues their western drift: “Freebooters, armed and drunk – a legion of gamblers, brawlers and whorehoppers. Blowing into town in a junk Model-A with bald tires, no muffler and one headlight…” Of course in HST’s book, Linkhorns wind up as outlaw bikers in Oakland in the 1960s. I read Hell’s Angels first and that’s what turned me on to A Walk on the Wild Side.

I remember vividly when and where I first read Hell's Angels for the very first time (since then, I've read parts of it many times over).  At the time, I was in a very, very bad place emotionally, and somehow, I suppose Hell's Angels helped me get through it.