Outlaw Journalist

Hunter Thompson was sufficiently talented, charismatic, whacked, imaginative, and much more to warrant countless books. Credited with inventing gonzo journalism (as Gabriel García Márquez is with magical realism, neither of which exists outside the work of its inventor), Thompson offered the possibility of an American journalism untethered to PR operatives or celebrity toadying, which of course is easier if one takes on a questionable celebrity of one’s own. I like former California Gov. Jerry Brown’s take on Thompson:

Ad astra per asperaRes ipsa loquitur