Buzz
Hunter S. Thompson, the father of Gonzo journalism, created a wildly unconventional style of reporting that combined truth with absurd fiction. But his tendency to blur the lines between fact and fantasy wasn't just a journalistic technique—it extended to his own personal history. He often exaggerated, fabricated, or entirely invented stories about his life, which biographers and reporters have treated as truth even long after his death. Even now, separating the man from the myth can be challenging. Here are six popular tales about Hunter S. Thompson that are entirely false.
1. Hunter S. Thompson allegedly quit The Jersey Shore Herald after wrecking a co-worker’s car.
One of Thompson's many legendary tales of quitting jobs involves his supposed dramatic exit from The Jersey Shore Herald in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania. While serving as the paper's sports editor, he claimed to have borrowed a colleague's car for a date with the man's daughter. In his version of events, he ended up getting the car stuck on a riverbank, requiring a farmer to use his tractor to pull it free—during which the car’s door was ripped off in the process.
In his 1990 book Songs of the Doomed, Hunter S. Thompson recalled a vivid moment when an angry journalist showed up at the newspaper office the following day, his face "beet-red." Thompson described how, upon seeing the man arrive in the wrecked car, he quickly packed up his belongings and fled to New York. However, his editor later offered a different account, revealing that Thompson was actually fired after a heated argument over a sports page.
2. He was supposedly fired from Time for kicking a cola machine.
After his stint at The Jersey Shore Herald, Thompson moved to New York, where he worked as a copyboy at Time for nearly a year. It was a lucky break for a young man with little experience, but Thompson’s ego soon led to clashes with his superiors. He later claimed he was fired for kicking a cola machine, though the real reason was insubordination due to his attitude. In fact, he was let go from another job a year later for kicking a candy machine, a story he liked so much he recycled it when recounting his Time departure.
3. Thompson allegedly typed out The Great Gatsby from start to finish for inspiration.
One of the most enduring stories about Hunter S. Thompson is that he typed out the entire text of The Great Gatsby—cover to cover—to experience what it was like to create a literary masterpiece. Thompson himself claimed this on multiple occasions, and it was widely repeated by biographers and even Johnny Depp. However, Thompson’s literary executor, Douglas Brinkley, later clarified that the author only typed out a few pages of the book to capture its rhythm, not the entire novel.
4. He supposedly lived in a cave in Bermuda and survived by stealing cabbages.
After his time in Puerto Rico, where he wrote The Rum Diary, Thompson traveled to Bermuda with his girlfriend. He later claimed that they had lived in a cave, surviving on cabbages they stole from locals. In reality, they were staying comfortably in a motel, though Thompson still found a way to have friends send him money.
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas was based on a real-life drug binge.
In 1971, Thompson traveled to Nevada with his lawyer, Oscar Acosta, and wrote his legendary work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, supposedly inspired by their wild escapades. While he often suggested that much of it was based on actual events, he was somewhat evasive about the truth. He wanted readers to believe that he and Acosta really indulged in hallucinogens. However, when one editor remarked that the story seemed fictional, Thompson quietly admitted that no drugs were involved and that the book was more of an attempt to simulate a drug-induced breakdown.
6. Thompson supposedly wrote Fear and Loathing in one single writing spree.
Thompson often spoke of writing Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in one or more marathon writing sessions, sometimes even claiming that much of it was written on his way home after stopping at a roadside bar. In truth, the book was the result of months of diligent effort. He was purposely crafting a myth that placed him alongside Jack Kerouac, who famously asserted that he wrote a draft of On the Road in just three weeks fueled by Benzedrine. (However, as with Thompson's claims, those weren’t exactly true either.)
Additional sources: Conversations With Hunter S. Thompson; Fear & Loathing in America by Hunter S. Thompson; The Proud Highway by Hunter S. Thompson; Kingdom of Fear by Hunter S. Thompson; When the Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson by Peter Whitmer; Fire Bone! by Robert Bone; Gonzo by Corey Seymour.
