Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson
*Starred Review* Even as a boy in Louisville, Kentucky, Hunter S. Thompson was charismatic, mischievous, and fearless. As the world’s most outrageous journalist, he even looked like a court jester from another planet, with his long limbs, jutting cigarette holder, big aviator glasses, and shorts. But the foulmouthed author of such incendiary works as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and the reluctant model for Uncle Duke in Doonesbury wasn’t just a prankster; he truly cared about the world. He covered presidential campaigns with such passion, insight, and literary firepower he makes today’s trivial-pursuit pundits look like robots. After a sequence of spectacular firings from various newspapers, he found a home at Rolling Stone with editor Jann Wenner, who, after Thompson’s 2005 Hemingway-style suicide, put together an oral biography, Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson (2007). Now McKeen, who also knew Thompson, presents a rock-solid, more fully dimensional, empathic, and rollicking portrait. Here is the hectic life, the scorching personality, the audacious acts and improbable triumphs, and, most importantly, a keen assessment of how Thompson revolutionized journalism. A voracious imbiber of booze and narcotics, Thompson declared, “I haven’t found a drug yet that can get you anywhere near as high as sitting at a desk writing.” --Donna Seaman