Are you obsessed with the 50th anniversary of the death of Ernest Hemingway? If so, check out Hunter S. Thompson's 1964 essay, "What Lured Hemingway to Ketchum?" A perfect rational Thompson (remember this is 1964) visits the Idaho town where Hemingway killed himself with a shotgun on July 2, 1961. It became a more interesting read in light of Thompson's own suicide by gunshot at his Colorado home in February, 2005.
In the Ketchum story, Thompson prophetically says that writers who lose their power of conviction lose the willingness to create art out of chaos.
You can find the essay in the Thompson collection, The Great Shark Hunt (1979) Note the discount sticker that graces the cover -- a kind of book shopper's book plate.
Update 2021 - Why Thompson Still Matters
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The August 14, 2021 issue of The Economist did a retrospective look at Thompson's best known book. Here's an excerpt:
Thompson claim that "gonzo" journalism--a person, scabrous, avowedly subjective style which he pioneered—was inspired by William Faulkner's view that "the best fiction is far more true than any kind of journalism". Fifty years after its publication, and despite its many distortions, Fear and Loathing retains its own twisted kind of truth.
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