Hunter S. Thompson has approximately 146 works in 398 publications in 16 languages. He has a huge following around the world which continues to grow even now, ten years after his death. In 2008 I was was toying with, and started a HST For Beginners series. The aim was to give anyone new to Hunter’s work a simple overview of what he, and his writing was about.

I began by pondering Hunter and his alter ego Duke. I also posed the question should Gonzo journalism be emulated. I decided to get in touch with some people who I have been lucky to get to know during my years collecting books and running this site. Some are writers, biographers, film makers, editors and scholars. Some were friends with Hunter and some are very knowledgeable fans. They all agreed to help without question. Their support and the time they put aside for this project was just fantastic and will always be appreciated.

I put all the contributions on the site HST For Beginners and more or less forgot about it. Which, given all the hard work the contributors put in, was just a sin. Now I plan on resurrecting their words, putting the contributions under the heading Hunting For Thompson (Thanks to the quick witted Nathan Grimes for coming up with the title) and giving the whole thing a new, fresh life here at HST Books. I’ll post the contributions every other day and then give them their own page.

More soon.

Image by Kevin Hanrahan