Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collection
Publication
Fawcett Popular Library (1980), Edition: First Edition, First Printing, 704 pages
Description
The first volume in Hunter S. Thompson's bestselling Gonzo Papers offers brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in his signature style. Originally published in 1979, the first volume of the bestselling "Gonzo Papers" is now back in print. The Great Shark Hunt is Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's largest and, arguably, most important work, covering Nixon to napalm, Las Vegas to Watergate, Carter to cocaine. These essays offer brilliant commentary and outrageous humor, in signature Thompson style. Ranging in date from the National Observer days to the era of Rolling Stone, The Great Shark Hunt offers myriad, highly charged entries, including the first Hunter S. Thompson piece to be dubbed "gonzo"--"The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved," which appeared in Scanlan's Monthly in 1970. From this essay a new journalistic movement sprang which would change the shape of American letters. Thompson's razor-sharp insight and crystal clarity capture the crazy, hypocritical, degenerate, and redeeming aspects of the explosive and colorful '60s and '70s.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member NikelB
This book contains a collection of HTS writings, including "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" which was my first introduction to illustrator Ralph Steadman. I found his writing entertaining in the observations he makes about people and the world around him, as well as how he manages to
Show More
make himself the central character in his work. Not only is he covering a story in many cases, but in many instances he is the story. Because this is a collections of various writings, one doesn't feel the need to read it from cover to cover, but can pick it up and read a little bit, then put it down and come back to it again. Pure Hunter. Show Less
LibraryThing member reedchr3
Here is Mr. Thompson sounding more like a journalist than a drug crazed mourner of the American Dream (although a tip of the hat to Mr. Duke is never misdirected), but it is not without the biting wit and unforgiving prose that characterize his work. The anthology starts with "Fear and Loathing at
Show More
the Kentucky Derby," now recognized as the first piece of Thompson's own 'Gonzo Journalism,' and goes on to include writings on Nixon, Hemingway, hippies and yes, shark hunting. An interesting tool for a journalism class that might want to explore how much a writer can include their own voice before we're no longer reading news. Show Less
LibraryThing member regularguy5mb
What can one say about Hunter S. Thompson that hasn't already been said? He was a madman, a genius, and an excellent writer. Collected here are several of his greatest pieces, such as "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved," which show his mastery of the written word and his search for an
This book, this massive tome, collects pieces from throughout Thompson's career. We see some of his first attempts at a writing career with his release from the Air Force and the notice he wrote to explain his unbridled joy to be free. There are his trips to South America, where he sees how his own country treats another and has several near-death experiences. On that front, there are also excerpts from his time with the Hell's Angels, which I know they didn't take too kindly once the pieces and the book were released. Then, of course, there are his undisputed classics of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. We see him rail against Nixon, cheer when the "snarling beast" is finally out of office, and champion a little-known peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter and the moment Carter blew Hunter and a room full of Southern lawyers away with one speech. The book closes with two pieces written on Muhammad Ali and his loss of the title to Leon Spinks.
The only real negative I can mention about this book is that the selected material isn't in any real chronological order. It starts with some of Thompson's more known Gonzo pieces, then about halfway through jumps much earlier in his writing career when he's still playing with his form. Still, an amazing collection from an amazing individual. Everyone should have a little Hunter Thompson in their lives.
Show More
absolute truth in his writing which would be the birth of Gonzo. This same truth, unfortunately, also created the character of "Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, wild man of the ages" that would eventually burn out a great mind. Well, the steady influx of drugs didn't help there either...This book, this massive tome, collects pieces from throughout Thompson's career. We see some of his first attempts at a writing career with his release from the Air Force and the notice he wrote to explain his unbridled joy to be free. There are his trips to South America, where he sees how his own country treats another and has several near-death experiences. On that front, there are also excerpts from his time with the Hell's Angels, which I know they didn't take too kindly once the pieces and the book were released. Then, of course, there are his undisputed classics of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. We see him rail against Nixon, cheer when the "snarling beast" is finally out of office, and champion a little-known peanut farmer named Jimmy Carter and the moment Carter blew Hunter and a room full of Southern lawyers away with one speech. The book closes with two pieces written on Muhammad Ali and his loss of the title to Leon Spinks.
The only real negative I can mention about this book is that the selected material isn't in any real chronological order. It starts with some of Thompson's more known Gonzo pieces, then about halfway through jumps much earlier in his writing career when he's still playing with his form. Still, an amazing collection from an amazing individual. Everyone should have a little Hunter Thompson in their lives.
Show Less
LibraryThing member 5hrdrive
Great collection of articles from the foremost journalist of the late 20th century. We need a Fear and Loathing On the Campaign Trail 2016 so badly, and he's not here to write it. What a shame.
LibraryThing member wenestvedt
I read this after having read most of the other Hunter Thompson books as a teenager, and was impressed less for the shock at the boozing and pills than I was at the immense scale and apparent hollowness of the Presidential political race. The value of the book in the long term, I think, will lie
Show More
more there than in another example of how to abuse expense accounts. Show Less
LibraryThing member DavenportsDream
A compendium of what made Thompson great...namely a keen journalistic eye for the craziness of our times. Yes he did drugs, yes he drinks copious amounts of alcohol, yes he probably should have been locked up, but then we would have missed football chats with Richard Nixon, stories about biker
Show More
gangs, horse racing, and the like. You have probably read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or seen that terrible movie, but what made Thompson great was not the outlaw "gonzo" persona, although that didn't hurt, but it was his ability to combine reality with a fiction that seemed to be almost believable which was never on better display than all the pieces within this anthology. As the Ventures should have said "Run, Don't Walk" to pick this bastard up at your local used bookshop. Show Less
LibraryThing member crazycatlady35
I enjoy his writing, and these essays helped clarify a lot of political issues for me. I paid very little attention at the time they were happening.
LibraryThing member Borg-mx5
More of the good doctors writings. This is a collection of essays and articles written over the early and middle part of Thompson's career. There was a notcible gap in publishing after Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72. Some might accuse Thompson of trading on his fame by trotting out old
Show More
and sometimes uneven work, but there is more than enough here to interest and entertain. A must have for the Thompson fan. Show Less
LibraryThing member comixminx
Not quite sure what rating to give this book, so I think I'll skip that bit... I was really just dipping into this again after having seen Frost/Nixon, and wanting to get a bit of the ol' HST vitriol along with a flavour of those times. Did not disappoint, but I think a smallish amount of Thompson
Show More
goes a long way, so I'll put it down again for now... Show Less
LibraryThing member DinadansFriend
The major pieces in this anthology deal with Watergate, South America and Jimmy Carter. IMHO, the Us will eventually understand that Jimmy Carter was a wise president, and not a failure. His attempt to hold back on Great Power politics in favour of a more nuanced approach will be seen as the right
Watergate is adequately described here rather more coolly here than in the Fireside Watergate book.
The ongoing tragedy of south America was a great awakening for Thompson,and really played a big part in his vision of the USA when he returned to it. so the book well repays the time sent in its reading.
Show More
idea. Bush battering the world has larely failed, and the USA is hard put to get anyone else to back their foreign policies has been taken advantage of by such shrewd operators as Putin. Watergate is adequately described here rather more coolly here than in the Fireside Watergate book.
The ongoing tragedy of south America was a great awakening for Thompson,and really played a big part in his vision of the USA when he returned to it. so the book well repays the time sent in its reading.
Show Less
LibraryThing member brleach
Great essays in this volume:
- The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved
- Strange Rumblings in Aztlan
- Freak Power in the Rockies
- Living in the Time of Alger, Greely, Debs
- Jimmy Carter and the Great Leap of Faith
Very good essays in this volume:
- Presenting: The Richard Nixon Doll (Overhauled
- Democracy Dies in Peru, but Few Seem to Mourn Its Passing
- The "Hashbury" Is the Capital of the Hippies
- The Nonstudent Left
- Those Daring Young Men in Their Flying Machines...Ain't What They Used To Be!
- The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved
- Strange Rumblings in Aztlan
- Freak Power in the Rockies
- Living in the Time of Alger, Greely, Debs
- Jimmy Carter and the Great Leap of Faith
Very good essays in this volume:
- Presenting: The Richard Nixon Doll (Overhauled
Show More
1968 Model)- Democracy Dies in Peru, but Few Seem to Mourn Its Passing
- The "Hashbury" Is the Capital of the Hippies
- The Nonstudent Left
- Those Daring Young Men in Their Flying Machines...Ain't What They Used To Be!
Show Less
LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
Great first line:
“Well... yes, and here we go again.”
Indeed! Lots of good reads in this collection, both serious and Gonzo, though I am a bigger Gonzo fan than serious fan. Hell, the book starts with two scathing letters of reprimand from his Air Force days! And LOTS of different subjects
Great stuff about the Brown Buffalo in "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" and "The Banshee Screams For Buffalo Meat"! Quite a bit from South America. Jimmy Carter, Hemingway in Idaho, and Marlon Brando!
A note on the scene in S.F. from "Hashbury" - a term I've never scene before! Politics in/near Woody Creek! And excerpts from "Hells Angels" and "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" including my favorite piece from the later - the piece about the 60's movement coming to an end:
"…We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . . So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
My favorite piece of new-for-me in here came from the book's title, "The Great Shark Hunt"! Very Gonzo and Thompson and insane! Sport fishing in Mexico probably was never the same after that excursion! Just horribly wonderful! I think the bottom of the book's cover says it all:
"Strange Tales from a Strange Time, America's Quintessential Outlaw Journalist"
Yeah. That's what I was trying to say. Balls.
“Well... yes, and here we go again.”
Indeed! Lots of good reads in this collection, both serious and Gonzo, though I am a bigger Gonzo fan than serious fan. Hell, the book starts with two scathing letters of reprimand from his Air Force days! And LOTS of different subjects
Show More
covered within! Quite a bit about Nixon - Hunter's hatred of him, a little bit more about the '72 election, and a lot about Watergate and Tricky Dick's resignation. We get Hunter's first crazed meeting with Ralph Steadman and a trip to the Kentucky Derby! Jean-Claude Killy, Muhammad Ali, and the Super Bowl! Great stuff about the Brown Buffalo in "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan" and "The Banshee Screams For Buffalo Meat"! Quite a bit from South America. Jimmy Carter, Hemingway in Idaho, and Marlon Brando!
A note on the scene in S.F. from "Hashbury" - a term I've never scene before! Politics in/near Woody Creek! And excerpts from "Hells Angels" and "Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas" including my favorite piece from the later - the piece about the 60's movement coming to an end:
"…We were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . . So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."
My favorite piece of new-for-me in here came from the book's title, "The Great Shark Hunt"! Very Gonzo and Thompson and insane! Sport fishing in Mexico probably was never the same after that excursion! Just horribly wonderful! I think the bottom of the book's cover says it all:
"Strange Tales from a Strange Time, America's Quintessential Outlaw Journalist"
Yeah. That's what I was trying to say. Balls.
Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1979
Physical description
704 p.; 6.93 inches
ISBN
0445045965 / 9780445045965