born July 18, 1939, Louisville, Ky., U.S.
U.S. journalist.
He had run-ins with the law as a young man and served in the U.S. Air Force. In 1965 he infiltrated the Hell's Angels motorcycle gang and published his account, Hell's Angels , in 1966. His psychedelic-drug romp, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1971), is considered a contemporary classic. Other books include Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1973), The Great Shark Hunt (1979), and Better Than Sex (1994). He created the genre known as "gonzo journalism," a style created from (by his own account) accident and desperation, and his writing
idiosyncratic and subjective in the extreme, and often wildly funny
gained him a large underground following.