This is Hunter S. Thompson’s recollection of his perception of the 1960s and a portrait of a writer of huge intelligence who is forced to live as an outsider, with rage and humour as the only tools with which to force his way in.
This volume contains the best of his letters from 1955 to 1967 and his first work of non-fiction. It is the closest thing to true autobiography that will every publish. Readers learn that Thompson was a high-minded man, whose rage and drug-taking derive from his clear-sighted understanding of how much better the world would be.
Thompson went on to write Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His book on the Hell’s Angels was the first book to try understand the workings of that band of outlaws.