From the desk of Will Bingley

“I can't think in terms of journalism without thinking in terms of political ends. Unless there's been a reaction, there's been no journalism. It's cause and effect.” 

Hunter S Thompson

A couple of weeks ago Emma and Doug, dropped me a line and very kindly asked if I’d like to jot down a series of notes on our Hunter book for their blog.  This being the first, I figured I should start with some interesting early Hunter landmarks.

Hunter was born in 1937 in Kentucky, to a lower middle class family residing in the Cherokee Triangle district of Kentucky.  I'd been trawling google images for at least a day, looking for a decent image reference when I stumbled across this awesome publicity image of a 1950’s Louisville neighbourhood just round the corner from the one Hunter grew up in.

As you can probably see Louisville wasn’t a place of great drama, though it did suffer some ugly social divisions.  Racial attitudes were negative, as is very poignantly illustrated by Muhammad Ali’s struggles with his native Kentuckians.  And, the financial divide between the middle and lower classes was particularly extreme, regardless of colour. 

Here’s an image of two little girls from a family of Hunter’s oft referenced Kentucky “hill people”, photographed by the great William Gedney in 1964.

Regardless of these flaws in the social landscape and barring the tragic death of his father, Hunter’s childhood was typical of any middle-class kid growing up in the fifties.  Up until his arrest in 1955 he had a pretty happy time at High School, he had a large group of friends and the encouragement of a literary mother and a great school literary society to help further his aims.

When Hunter was arrested he was held here, in the rather grim Jefferson County Jail where Hunter, served his 30 day sentence in 1955.

While it’s uncommon for a middle class kid to spend time in jail, Hunter’s arrest and imprisonment have definitely been sensationalised and wrongly tied into the broader “Gonzo” mythology.   The fact is he was dealt a very brutal hand by the judge who sentenced him.  His stated offence was being present at the scene of a robbery.  In truth one of his friends had stolen a man’s wallet and Hunter was simply sitting in a nearby car.  When the case came to court his friends, mostly the sons of wealthy Louisvillians were let off and Hunter, a relatively poor kid with no connections, was sentenced to 60 days in jail.

Albeit wildly unjust, this period of incarceration had a fairly profound effect on the young man.  It was during this period that the seeds of the particular brand of libertarianism that would inform all his later works were first sown.  As is evident in a naiive piece written in the same year, “...So we shall let the reader answer this question for himself: Who is the happier man, he who has braved the storm of life and lived, or he who has stayed securely on shore and merely existed?”

On release he was forced into the US Airforce.  Here’s Hunter, aged nineteen or twenty, at work on his first professional writing gig for “The Command Courier” his base newspaper...

And, as we can see from how his commanding officer felt about him, here’s how his philosophies had blossomed...

HEADQUARTERS
AIR PROVING GROUND COMMAND
UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
Eglin Air Force Base, Florida

ADDRESS REPLY
ATTN: Base Staff Personnel Officer
Personnel Report: A/2C Hunter S. Thompson
23 Aug 57

1. A/2C Hunter S. Thompson, AF15546879, has worked in the Internal Information
Section, OIS, for nearly one year. During this time he has done some outstanding sports writing, but ignored APGC-OIS policy.

2. Airman Thompson possesses outstanding talent in writing. He has imagination, good
use of English, and can express his thoughts in a manner that makes interesting reading

3. However, in spite of frequent counseling with explanation of the reasons for the
conservative policy on an AF base newspaper, Airman Thompson has consistently written
controversial material and leans so strongly to critical editorializing that it was necessary to require that all his writing be thoroughly edited before release.

4. The first article that called attention to the writing noted above was a story very
critical of Base Special Services. Others that were stopped before they were printed were pieces that severely criticized Arthur Godfrey and Ted Williams that Airman Thompson extracted from national media releases and added his flair for the innuendo and exaggeration.

5. This Airman has indicated poor judgment from other standpoints by releasing Air
Force information to the Playground News himself, with no consideration for other papers in the area, or the fact that only official releases, carefully censored by competent OIS staff members, are allowed.

6. In summary, this Airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy or personal
advice and guidance. Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other airmen staff members. He has little consideration for military bearing or dress and seems to dislike the service and want out as soon as possible.

7. Consequently, it is requested that Airman Thompson be assigned to other duties
immediately, and it is recommended that he be earnestly considered under the early release program.

8. It is also requested that Airman Thompson be officially advised that he is to do no
writing of any kind for internal or external publication unless such writing is edited by the OIS staff, and that he is not to accept outside employment with any of the local media.

W. S. EVANS, Colonel, USAF
Chief, Office of Information Services
(As published in “The Great Shark Hunt”)

So, there’s your fistful of Hunter titbits.  Next time round I’ll be looking at Hunter’s influences and the creation of his Gonzo persona.  Here’s a quick preview, a rare piece of blurb written by Hunter and printed alongside one of his earliest articles in an issue of Pageant Magazine from 1967.