A 'Decadent And Depraved' Derby With Hunter S. Thompson

[n2doc]

by NPR STAFF
May 04, 201312:07 PM



In the spring of 1970, a British illustrator named Ralph Steadman had just moved to America, hoping to find some work. His first call came from a small literary journal called Scanlan's. It was looking for a cartoonist to send to the Kentucky Derby. Steadman had heard of neither the race nor the writer he was to accompany, a fellow named Hunter S. Thompson.

Steadman hadn't read any of Thompson's work, and he certainly didn't know that the writer had a bit of a drinking tendency, but he agreed to go.

One booze-riddled weekend later, Scanlan's published the essay and launched Thompson into stardom. "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved" so fascinated audiences that one Boston Globe writer deemed it "gonzo" — a term that would stick with Hunter S. Thompson for good.

more

http://www.npr.org/2013/05/03/180907071/a-decadent-and-depraved-derby-with-hunter-s-thompson

No one did decadent like HST. Wish he had been around for the Romney campaign.

[Cooley Hurd]

1. Hunter's voice would've been sooo appreciated during the runup of 2012

Romney was most definitely a villian from Thompson's Central Casting!

[NightWatcher]

2. To have been a fly on the wall when Ralph met Hunter...

[cali]

3. I can tell you a good Hunter story- not nearly as interesting as Steadman, but...

when I was 21 I got a job as an au pair girl for the for the political editor for RS and that's how I met Hunter. I pretty much got the job because of my looks and my background. Anyway Hunter and I hit it off over a mutual love of the writers Malcolm Lowery and Walker Percy. And he never once came on to me or patronized me.

My most memorable time with Hunter, and there were quite a few, was in Elko Nevada. Hunter had rented a red convertible of some American kind and around midnight he convinced me to go with him for a drive to buy presents for everyone at this whacked out RS political conference. It was the middle of the night. In Elko Nevada. We stopped at some brightly lit mega gas station where they had nightsticks for sale and he bought them as gifts along with other weird stuff. We drove around for hours snorting cocaine dissolved in something in a nose spray bottle and drinking vodka.

Then there was the time in Maine.......

[Snarkoleptic]

4. Big HST fan here!

Any other anecdotes you are willing to share?
I've been jonesing for HST material and just re-read The Great Shark Hunt.

[cali]

6. sure

there was the time in Maine he got me to fire his 357 in a barn. It was winter and I'd wandered in to a weird shooting party with lots of Jack Daniels. The party continued in the living room of the rented for the week house into the wee hours. I went to bed way before it ended and when I woke up I went into the living room. Scrawled above the fireplace was, "he who soars with the eagles at night, wallows with the pigs in the morning". It was Hunter, of course.

Do eagles even soar at night?

[Snarkoleptic]

7. That's a delish HST tidbit!

Thanks!!

[Blue_Tires]

5. Kick