Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson

Not one of his better books unless you like political campaigns. I much more enjoy his adventures like “The Great Shark Hunt”, or “Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas”— nonetheless, it’s still Hunter writing in true Hunter style!!! The book has its moments, but its NOT the page turner of so many of his other books, essays and outright ramblings!! Buy it if your a true Hunter fan/ you will still like it.

A great Hunter Thompson collection. In this collection you can see Thompson's mind at work and his astute observations. Every time I read his works I feel the frantic energy with which he did everything jump off the page and slap me in the face and say wake up dummy I've got something to tell you pay attention! If you are new to Thompson's work this is a good place to start and if you're an old friend it's full of memories! As The Good Doctor would say "If the going gets weird the weird turn pro"! Man I turned pro a long time ago and thank you Hunter for helping me do it!

I wish Amazon had a "No stars - comment" rating option. HST's work is strong enough to make this a 5 star book, especially if the pieces are new to the reader, but it's almost entirely a reprinting of work for which RS undoubtedly holds the copyright, and there's very little new, making it a one or two star for an HST fan.It is a nice collection of some spectacular HST writing, but if you're already a fan, you've probably already read most of it.There is very little new here, as most of it is RS articles re-published. In fact, it feels most of the book is Fear And Loathing: On The Campaign Trail; if you've read that, you've read much of this book.Fundamentally, though, this book is troubling for two reasons. One, it is just another bald-faced attempt at wringing more money out of HST's ghost by Mr. Wenner and co -- maybe, _maybe_ if there was any indication in the intro / cover / etc that the profits were being donated to a cause in line with HST's philosophies, that's ok. Otherwise, it's just craven greed. Two, it's another attempt by Mr. Wenner to make himself look better and HST worse... that says a lot when the other guy is, you know, dead. At least, in this version, it's _slightly_ less insulting in its "I'm actually a good guy!" and "HST was a terrible person!" character-assassination efforts, or at least it's not as aggressive in them. I can't shake the feeling that Mr. Wenner is either in denial of, ignorant of, or upset by the notion that HST is a main (the only?) reason RS ever became what it was, instead of just another local-rag newsletter rotting in a pile by the door of Rasputin Records, and his books are an effort to deal with it... and result in an unpleasant experience for the HST-fan reader. In this case, specifically, the "see! He slid over time! See! His new stuff (that I chose) is so much better than his later stuff (that I chose, from a collection of work that was written for a magazine he believed royally mistreated him)!" is particularly contrived. If you're a big fan of HST's work, unless you enjoy feeling stabby, skip this one.Reading it now, though, does leave two take-away messages: "The more things change, the more they stay the same." I could pull quotes from the campaign-coverage material and publish it today, word for word, about current political events. And, thanks to the inclusion of a few letters by Mr. Wenner, the difference in skill between a hack/non-writer and a true genius with language is -abundantly- clear. I imagine Mr. Wenner included the letters he did to make himself feel better and/or attempt to put himself in a good light, but the jarring difference in authorial skill drives home how talented the good Doctor was, like including Salieri's music on the Amadeus soundtrack: "Wait, this is bland and unremarkable... [ checks CD case ] oh, it's Salieri." So, there's at least that of "new material value," I guess.Unless you've read -everything- else, the few new letters here aren't worth it. If you've only read Fear and Loathing and are looking for more material, this is a reasonable "best of," but consider looking elsewhere.

This book is a kind of Hunter Thompson "reader." It contains abridged selections from the years of his association with Rolling Stone. At its best, it presents a "highlight package" assembled by Jann Wenner, containing pieces from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Thompson's 1972 campaign coverage, Watergate, Fear and Loathing in Elko, correspondence between Wenner and Thompson, and other fragments.As a Thompson fan, of course I always enjoy reading his work. This book, though, by no means substitutes for reading the full length works and full sequences of pieces it is drawn from. If what you're in the mood for is in fact a retrospective cruise through work you're already familiar with, it's enjoyable. If instead you want to read the real Thompson, either for the first time or as a revisiting, then you're better off going to the originals. I do think it's a shame when publishers substitute abridged versions of already relatively short works, encouraging readers to satisfy themselves with less than the real thing. And the real thing is available in individual works.It's hard not to give a higher rating to anything written by Hunter Thompson, but the fault here is not his, but the very conception of the book.

Oh yes! this is the best collection of Hunters Writings since his Early letters books which is a great companion to this one.The first Letter book covers personal correspondence and his evolution into what we know as his Gonzo Style.This book is all the Short and Sweet stories he covered for Rolling Stone along with behind the scenes conversations with his RS handler.I would go so far as to say this book redeems Hunter once and for all after the list of not so remarkable books written post-Fear and Loathing.If you only get two of his books make it Fear and Loathing and THIS ONE!

I'd like an unabridged edition.

My husband liked the book, but it fell apart while he was reading it😕.

it has several hundred pages. when the book ended I was sad. The passages about his involvement in covering the Nixon campaign was very similar to what was happening with Donald Trump's campaign. Hunter S. Thompson was a very funny man. I laughed a lot at his wit, humor and outrage.

Bought for a present. Great, as expected!

Got a book worth over 100 for 30 new condition over the moon with purchase

one needs determination to consume this book.

Bargain

Hunter knew the world was all going to hell long before it even happened. When I was younger (rebellious grunge teen/early 90's) I never really understood his obsession with the death of the american/democratic dream. I never really got his scrutiny of politics and/or his unwavering quest to maintain personal liberties and constitutional rights that he felt were under constant attack of being violated or taken all together. I simply thought gonzo journalism was awesome and the whole concept of it was both entertaining and rebellious, it was kind of fascinating. Fast forward 20 years and I find these works still entertaining but hauntingly disturbing as well. Behind that typewriter was what most people considered a drug fueled maniac, but was he? Of course we all know Hunter did alot of drugs, but for myself, I can't simply dismiss all these ramblings as a drug induced haze. They were right, he was right, shockingly so right I wonder how he knew? Stripped civil liberties, 9/11 backlash, invasion of privacy, collapsing economies, the advent of the death of the american dream? I don't know.. Am I going too deep with this? Am I the only one who thinks these things? Was his health that bad or did he just decide a bullet in his head was the final answer? He said he would, and he sure followed through, just like everything else, full bore, top gear, right to the end. We don't really have anybody like a Hunter anymore, RIP. If he was still alive could he even handle what's going on these days? Some people might think these post death works are a cash grab, all I can say is keep them coming because they're not only entertaining to me, they're thought provoking as hell. I for one highly recommend his musings and this book, it's a lost art form that the world "needs" right now more than ever. I've come full circle with Hunter and I think his journalism was written off too easily because of the drugs. There's important work here, and I think you will feel the same.