Author Guide · Gonzo Journalism
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Hunter S. Thompson published fourteen books between 1967 and 2004, and only three of them are the ones people mean when they say they have read Thompson. In 1965 The Nation asked a little-known freelance writer to look into the Hells Angels; he spent the next year riding with them, and the book that came out of it made his name. Five years later, facing a deadline on the Kentucky Derby, he began tearing pages out of his notebook and sending them in, and an editor wrote back that it was pure Gonzo. This guide covers all fourteen in order, what came out after his death, the books that were announced and never appeared, and where to start.
By Lisanne Swart · 14 books · Gonzo · 1967–2004 · Updated September 2026
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Quick answer
Hunter S. Thompson published fourteen books between 1967 and 2004: four works of reportage, two of fiction — including a novel he wrote at twenty-two and shelved for forty years — and eight books of collected journalism, letters and memoir. More collections appeared after his death, and two announced books, the novel Polo Is My Life and the letters volume The Mutineer, were never published. The order they appeared in is not the order to read them in.
Where to Start with Hunter S. Thompson
If you want to start where he started
→ Hell's Angels (1967).
If you want the famous one
→ Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972).
If you care about politics
→ Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973).
If you want his journalism across the years
→ The Great Shark Hunt (1979).
If you want the man behind the persona
→ The Proud Highway (1997).
All 14 Hunter S. Thompson Books, in Order
Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
In 1965 The Nation hired Thompson to write about the Hells Angels motorcycle club, and he went on to spend a year living and riding with them in California. The relationship broke down when the bikers decided he was profiting from them, and it ended with a savage beating at a party. The New York Times praised the book as angry, knowledgeable and fascinating, and after it came out CBC Television put Thompson face to face with a Hells Angel in front of a studio audience.
It is the one I would press on anyone who hasn't read him.
— LisanneFear and Loathing in Las Vegas
It began as a 250-word photo caption about the Mint 400 motorcycle race for Sports Illustrated. Thompson sent in 2,500 words, the magazine rejected them, and Rolling Stone took the story instead, serialising it in two parts in November 1971 before Random House published the book the following year. Raoul Duke and his attorney, Dr. Gonzo, based on Thompson's trips to Las Vegas with the activist and lawyer Oscar Zeta Acosta, lose themselves in a search for the American Dream; underneath the drugs, the book is about the failure of the 1960s counterculture. The New York Times called it “the best book yet written on the decade of dope”. Terry Gilliam filmed it in 1998 with Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro.
Read it slowly. It is much bleaker than its reputation.
— LisanneFear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72
Thompson covered the 1972 presidential election for Rolling Stone in fourteen instalments, following the Democratic primaries between George McGovern, Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey through to Nixon's landslide. He backed McGovern, openly, and started a rumour, which he later admitted he had invented, that Muskie was using the drug ibogaine. McGovern's campaign director, Frank Mankiewicz, called it the most accurate and least factual account of the campaign.
If you read one Thompson book that isn't Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, make it this one.
— LisanneThe Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time
The first of the four Gonzo Papers volumes and the biggest collection of his journalism: early newspaper and magazine pieces from before Gonzo, together with almost all of his Rolling Stone work. It includes “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved” (1970), the first piece written in the Gonzo style, and excerpts from his best-known books.
The Curse of Lono
A Gonzo account of the 1980 Honolulu Marathon, illustrated throughout by Ralph Steadman. An early version appeared in Running magazine in 1981 as “The Charge of the Weird Brigade”. The book itself was a disappointment at the time: its editor called it disorganised and incoherent, and it was poorly reviewed and sold badly.
Generation of Swine: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the '80s
A collection of the weekly media columns Thompson wrote for The San Francisco Examiner in the 1980s. His editor there remembered that one week's column could be gibberish with a charm of its own, and the next week's political analysis of the highest order.
Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream
The most personal of the Gonzo Papers: autobiographical reminiscences, articles and material that had never been published before, including “Mescalito”, his account of his first mescaline trip, alone in a Los Angeles hotel room in 1969.
Screwjack
Three short pieces, “Mescalito”, “Death of a Poet” and the title story, a strange love story told by his alter ego Raoul Duke. It first appeared in 1991 as a private printing of 300 numbered and 26 lettered copies, which is why it is often dated twice; Simon & Schuster published the ordinary edition in 2000. At around 60 pages, it is a very short book.
Better Than Sex: Confessions of a Political Junkie
The last Gonzo Papers volume covers the 1992 presidential campaign. Instead of travelling with the candidates, as he had in 1972, Thompson followed it on cable television, and most of the book is made up of the faxes and letters he fired off to Rolling Stone, with a few articles on the election.
Read it after Campaign Trail '72: the same obsession with presidential politics, twenty years on.
— LisanneThe Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955–1967
The first volume of his collected letters, edited by the historian Douglas Brinkley, runs from his years in the Air Force to the publication of Hell's Angels. It includes his letters from Puerto Rico, Brazil and San Francisco to friends such as the novelist William Kennedy, written while he was still trying to become a writer.
Read it if you want to know who he was before the persona took over.
— LisanneThe Rum Diary
His only published novel, based on the months he spent in Puerto Rico in 1960, where he had gone to work for a sports magazine that folded soon after he arrived. He worked on it in Big Sur the following year, but it stayed unpublished for almost four decades, until 1998. Paul Kemp, an American journalist, joins a failing English-language newspaper in San Juan. In 2011 it was filmed with Johnny Depp.
Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist, 1968–1976
The second volume of letters, from the years of his greatest fame. Hundreds of letters, most of them his, to his Random House editor Jim Silberman, to Oscar Zeta Acosta, to Tom Wolfe, and to Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone, with whom his relationship was always shifting. Along the way he discusses the two Fear and Loathing books and his long wish to see The Rum Diary made into a film.
Read it together with The Proud Highway.
— LisanneKingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
Publicised as his first memoir, it mixes new writing with newspaper clippings and older pieces. Among the new material is the first time he wrote about covering the US invasion of Grenada in 1983.
Read it last.
— LisanneHey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness
Thompson ended his career as it began, writing about sport. From 2000 he wrote a weekly column called “Hey, Rube” for ESPN.com's Page 2, and in 2004 Simon & Schuster collected columns from its first years, the last book published in his lifetime.
How Many Books Did Hunter S. Thompson Write?
Fourteen in his lifetime. Sites that say more are usually counting books that came out after his death, or ones that never came out at all.
- Reportage — Hell's Angels, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and The Curse of Lono. Read the entries →
- The Gonzo Papers — four collections, from The Great Shark Hunt (1979) to Better Than Sex (1994), gathering most of his journalism. Read the entries →
- Letters — The Proud Highway (1997) and Fear and Loathing in America (2000), both edited by Douglas Brinkley. Read the entries →
- Fiction — the novel The Rum Diary and the three short pieces of Screwjack.
- Never published — the novel Polo Is My Life and the third volume of letters, The Mutineer, both of which appear on shopping sites. See the full list →
In What Order to Read Hunter S. Thompson
His books are not a series, so you can start anywhere. Two things are worth knowing: The Rum Diary was written around 1960 but published in 1998, so by date of writing it is his earliest book; and the two letter collections read best together, as a running commentary on everything else.
A reading path
1. Hell's Angels (1967)
2. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972)
3. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973)
4. The Great Shark Hunt (1979)
5. The Proud Highway (1997) and Fear and Loathing in America (2000)
6. Kingdom of Fear (2003)
Everything Else Hunter S. Thompson Wrote: The Full List
Beyond the fourteen books: the collections published after his death, two small limited editions, and the two books that were announced, listed and never published. The books you can actually buy sit at the top of each form.
Open a form with the + to see every book in it.
Published after his death
3
3 books · 2005–2009
Gonzo: Photographs by Hunter S. Thompson (2006)
His own photographs.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone: The Essential Writing of Hunter S. Thompson (2009)
His best Rolling Stone pieces with letters and memos, edited by Jann Wenner.
Amazon, Bookshop.org and more
- 2005Happy Birthday, Jack Nicholsona short selection of his writing, published by Penguin
Limited editions
2
2 books · 1997–2004
- 1997Mistah Leary, He Dead: A Eulogy for Dr. Timothy Learya short eulogy
- 2004Fire in the Nutsa short piece of fiction
Announced but never published
2
2 books · 1999–2008
- 1999Polo Is My Lifea novel he worked on in the early 1990s; Random House scheduled it and gave it an ISBN, but it never appeared
- 2008The Mutineer: Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop, 1977–2005the planned third volume of letters, announced by Simon & Schuster and never published
Quick facts about Hunter S. Thompson
- Born
- July 18, 1937, Louisville, Kentucky
- Died
- February 20, 2005, Woody Creek, Colorado, aged 67
- Pen name
- Raoul Duke
- Before the books
- US Air Force (1955–1958), sports editor, stringer in Puerto Rico and correspondent in South America
- Home
- Owl Farm, Woody Creek, which he bought in 1969 and lived in for the rest of his life
- Invented
- Gonzo journalism, with “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved” (Scanlan's Monthly, 1970)
- Wrote for
- Rolling Stone, The National Observer, The San Francisco Examiner, ESPN.com
- Illustrator
- Ralph Steadman, from 1970
- Books
- 14 in his lifetime, from Hell's Angels (1967) to Hey Rube (2004)
- Ran for
- Sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, in 1970, on the Freak Power ticket
How Hunter S. Thompson Wrote: The Reporter in the Story
Thompson taught himself rhythm the hard way. As a copy boy at Time in the late 1950s, he typed out The Great Gatsby and Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms to feel how the sentences were built. What he did with it was the opposite of their restraint. In 1970, up against a deadline for his Kentucky Derby piece, he started sending the magazine pages ripped out of his notebook, and the journalist Bill Cardoso wrote to him: “This is it, this is pure Gonzo.”
Gonzo puts the writer in the middle of the story. Thompson almost always wrote in the first person, used his own fear, exhaustion and appetites as material, and mixed reported fact with open invention, often through his alter ego, Raoul Duke. He was frank that he was not trying to reconstruct events the way Tom Wolfe or Gay Talese did, and said he did not think of himself as a reporter.
His editors at Rolling Stone learned that he was a stickler for real details, from numbers to song lyrics, even when the scene around them was pure fantasy. Tom Wolfe called him the greatest American comic writer of the twentieth century. From 1970 his work was paired with the ink-splattered drawings of Ralph Steadman.
Frequently asked questions about Hunter S. Thompson's books
How many books did Hunter S. Thompson write?
Hunter S. Thompson published fourteen books in his lifetime, from Hell's Angels (1967) to Hey Rube (2004). Several more collections appeared after his death in 2005, including Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone, and two announced books, the novel Polo Is My Life and the letters volume The Mutineer, were never published.
What are Hunter S. Thompson's books in order?
In order of first publication: Hell's Angels (1967), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972), Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973), The Great Shark Hunt (1979), The Curse of Lono (1983), Generation of Swine (1988), Songs of the Doomed (1990), Screwjack (1991), Better Than Sex (1994), The Proud Highway (1997), The Rum Diary (1998), Fear and Loathing in America (2000), Kingdom of Fear (2003), Hey Rube (2004).
Did Hunter S. Thompson write a novel?
Yes, one: The Rum Diary, based on his time in Puerto Rico in 1960 and published in 1998. He also worked on a second novel, Polo Is My Life, in the 1990s, but it was never published.
Which Hunter S. Thompson book should I read first?
Hell's Angels (1967) if you want to start where his career began, or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972) if you want his most famous book.
What is Gonzo journalism?
Gonzo journalism is a style in which the writer becomes central to, and a participant in, the story. Thompson first used it in “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved” (1970); the journalist Bill Cardoso described that piece as “pure Gonzo”, and Thompson took the word as his own.
What are the Gonzo Papers?
The Gonzo Papers are four collections of Thompson's journalism: The Great Shark Hunt (1979), Generation of Swine (1988), Songs of the Doomed (1990) and Better Than Sex (1994). Together they gather most of his work from 1979 to 1994, along with earlier pieces.
Is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas a true story?
Partly. It is based on two real trips Thompson made to Las Vegas with the lawyer and activist Oscar Zeta Acosta in 1971, but like all his Gonzo writing it deliberately mixes fact with invention, and it is narrated by his alter ego, Raoul Duke.
What is the difference between Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72?
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a short, hallucinatory account of two trips to Las Vegas and the end of the 1960s. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 is a long book of political reporting on the 1972 presidential election, first written as fourteen instalments for Rolling Stone.
Was The Mutineer by Hunter S. Thompson ever published?
No. The Mutineer: Rants, Ravings, and Missives from the Mountaintop, 1977–2005 was announced by Simon & Schuster as the third volume of his letters, but it has never been published.
What was Hunter S. Thompson's last book?
The last book published in his lifetime was Hey Rube (2004), a collection of his ESPN.com columns. Collections published after his death include Gonzo (2006), a book of his photographs, and Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone (2009).
Which Hunter S. Thompson books have been made into films?
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was filmed by Terry Gilliam in 1998, with Johnny Depp as Raoul Duke and Benicio del Toro as Dr. Gonzo, after a looser adaptation, Where the Buffalo Roam (1980), starring Bill Murray. The Rum Diary was filmed in 2011 with Johnny Depp.
When did Hunter S. Thompson die?
Hunter S. Thompson died on February 20, 2005, at his home, Owl Farm, in Woody Creek, Colorado, aged 67. He died by suicide; in January 2026 Colorado authorities, who had re-examined the case, confirmed that finding. If this subject affects you, support is available: in the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, call Samaritans on 116 123; in the Netherlands, call 113 or 0800-0113.
Footnotes
- Hunter S. Thompson — Wikipedia
- Hunter S. Thompson bibliography — Wikipedia
- The Gonzo Papers — Wikipedia
- Screw-Jack — Wikipedia
- Fear and Loathing in America — Wikipedia
- Fear and Loathing at Rolling Stone — Wikipedia
- Screwjack — Simon & Schuster
- Hunter S. Thompson — Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame, Carnegie Center
- Hunter S. Thompson Bibliography — Beatdom
- Screwjack — HST Books
Bibliography last verified 10 September 2026.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“Buy the ticket, take the ride.”
— Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1972)
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