Editing Hunter S. Thompson (section)

==Early life==
Thompson was born into a middle-class family in [[Louisville]], [[Kentucky]], the first of three sons of Virginia Davison Ray (1908, [[Springfield, Kentucky]] – March 20, 1998, Louisville), who worked as head librarian at the [[Louisville Free Public Library]] and Jack Robert Thompson (September 4, 1893, [[Horse Cave, Kentucky]] – July 3, 1952, Louisville), a public insurance adjuster and [[World War I]] veteran.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Reitwiesner |first=William Addams |title=Ancestry of Hunter Thompson |url=http://www.wargs.com/other/thompson.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803231149/http://www.wargs.com/other/thompson.html |archive-date=August 3, 2020 |access-date=August 3, 2012}}</ref> His parents were introduced by a friend from Jack's fraternity at the [[University of Kentucky]] in September 1934, and married on November 2, 1935.<ref name="whitmer">{{Cite book |last=Whitmer |first=Peter O. |url=https://archive.org/details/whengoinggetswei00whit/page/23 |title=When The Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson |publisher=[[Hyperion (publisher)|Hyperion]] |year=1993 |isbn=1-56282-856-8 |edition=First |pages=[https://archive.org/details/whengoinggetswei00whit/page/23 23–27]}}</ref> Journalist [[Nicholas Lezard]] of ''[[The Guardian]]'' stated that Thompson's first name, Hunter, came from an ancestor on his mother's side, Scottish surgeon [[John Hunter (surgeon)|John Hunter]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lezard |first=Nicholas |author-link=Nicholas Lezard |date=October 11, 1997 |title=An outlaw comes home |work=The Guardian}}</ref> A more direct attribution is that Thompson's first and middle name, Hunter Stockton, came from his maternal grandparents, Prestly Stockton Ray and Lucille Hunter.<ref name=mckeen>{{Cite book |last=McKeen |first=William |url=https://archive.org/details/outlawjournalist00mcke |title=Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson |date=July 13, 2009 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |isbn=9780393249118 |language=en |quote=Prestly Stockton Ray. |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In December 1943, when Thompson was six years old, the family settled in the affluent [[Cherokee Triangle]] neighborhood of [[The Highlands (Louisville)|The Highlands]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Eblen |first=Tom |title=For sale: Hunter S. Thompson's childhood home – bullet holes, Gates of Hell not included |url=http://tomeblen.bloginky.com/2008/05/07/for-sale-hunter-s-thompsons-childhood-home-bullet-holes-gates-of-hell-not-included-2/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325154431/http://tomeblen.bloginky.com/2008/05/07/for-sale-hunter-s-thompsons-childhood-home-bullet-holes-gates-of-hell-not-included-2/ |archive-date=March 25, 2012 |access-date=August 3, 2012 |website=The Bluegrass and Beyond }}</ref> On July 3, 1952, when Thompson was 14, his father died of [[myasthenia gravis]] at age 58. Hunter and his brothers were raised by their mother. Virginia worked as a librarian to support her children and was described as a "heavy drinker" following her husband's death.<ref name="whitmer" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hunter S Thompson Biography and Notes |title=Books by Hunter S. Thompson – biography and notes |url=http://www.biblio.com/hunter-s-thompson~142810~author |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130824053734/http://www.biblio.com/hunter-s-thompson~142810~author |archive-date=August 24, 2013 |access-date=July 30, 2010 |publisher=Biblio.com}}</ref>

===Education===
[[File:Hunter S. Thompson (high school senior portrait).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.6|alt=Oval-shaped photo portrait of a young man with short hair wearing a suit|Thompson's high-school senior portrait]]
Interested in sports and athletically inclined from a young age, Thompson co-founded the Hawks Athletic Club while attending [[Public schools in Louisville, Kentucky#Elementary Schools|I.N. Bloom Elementary School]],<ref name="HawksClub">{{Cite book |last=William McKeen |url=https://archive.org/details/outlawjournalist00mcke/page/9 |title=Outlaw Journalist: The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson |publisher=W.&nbsp;W. Norton & Company |year=2008 |isbn=978-0393061925 |page=[https://archive.org/details/outlawjournalist00mcke/page/9 9] |author-link=William McKeen}}</ref> which led to an invitation to join Louisville's Castlewood Athletic Club<ref name="HawksClub" /> for adolescents that prepared them for high-school sports. Ultimately, he never joined a sports team in high school.<ref name="whitmer" /> He grew up in the same neighborhood as mystery novelist [[Sue Grafton]], who was a few years behind him in school.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://carnegiecenterlex.org/kwhf-2019-sue-grafton/|title=Sue Grafton|website=carnegiecenterlex.org|access-date=September 14, 2024|archive-date=April 19, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240419222810/https://carnegiecenterlex.org/kwhf-2019-sue-grafton/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Thompson attended I.N. Bloom Elementary School,<ref>{{Cite book |last=McKeen |url=https://archive.org/details/outlawjournalist00mcke |title=Outlaw Journalist |publisher=Norton |year=2008 |isbn=9780393061925 |page=[https://archive.org/details/outlawjournalist00mcke/page/5 5] |url-access=registration}}</ref> [[Highland Middle School (Louisville, Kentucky)|Highland Middle School]], and [[Atherton High School (Kentucky)|Atherton High School]], before transferring to [[Louisville Male High School]] in fall 1952.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wenner |first1=Jann |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8EVYFEDvsiYC |title=Gonzo: The Life Of Hunter S. Thompson |last2=Seymour |first2=Corey |date=September 4, 2008 |publisher=Little, Brown Book Group |isbn=978-0-7481-0849-7 |access-date=October 2, 2020 |archive-date=January 27, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240127090909/https://books.google.com/books?id=8EVYFEDvsiYC |url-status=live }} Chapter 1, section by Lou Ann Iler.</ref> Also in 1952, he was accepted as a member of the Athenaeum [[Literary society|Literary Association]], a school-sponsored literary and social club that dated to 1862. Its members at the time came from Louisville's [[American upper class|upper-class]] families, and included [[Porter Bibb]], who later became the first publisher of ''Rolling Stone'' at Thompson's behest. During this time, Thompson read and admired [[J.&nbsp;P. Donleavy]]'s ''[[The Ginger Man]]''.<ref name="Guardian">{{Cite news |last=Homberger |first=Eric |date=February 22, 2005 |title=Obituary: Hunter S. Thompson: Colourful chronicler of American life whose 'gonzo' journalism contrived to put him always at the centre of the action |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/feb/22/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries |url-status=live |access-date=December 11, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130181305/https://www.theguardian.com/news/2005/feb/22/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries |archive-date=November 30, 2016}}</ref>

As an Athenaeum member, Thompson contributed articles to and helped produce the club's [[yearbook]] ''The Spectator'', until the group ejected Thompson in 1955 for criminal activity.<ref name="whitmer" /> Charged as an [[Accessory (legal term)|accessory]] to robbery after being in a car with the perpetrator, Thompson was sentenced to 60 days in Kentucky's [[Jefferson County, Kentucky|Jefferson County]] Jail. He served 31 days and, during his incarceration, was refused permission to take final exams, preventing his graduation.<ref name=Guardian /> He enlisted in the [[United States Air Force]] upon release.<ref name="whitmer" />

===Military service===
[[File:Hunter S. Thompson (Air Force service photo).jpg|alt=Airman Second Class Hunter S. Thompson at his desk in 1957 as sports editor of the ''Command Courier'', a military publication serving the Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle|thumb|Thompson in 1957 as sports editor of the ''Courier Commander'', an Air Force newsletter]]
Thompson completed [[basic training]] at [[Lackland Air Force Base]] in [[San Antonio]], Texas and transferred to [[Scott Air Force Base]] in [[Belleville, Illinois|Belleville]], Illinois to study [[electronics]]. He applied to become an aviator, but the Air Force's [[Military aviation|aviation]]-[[cadet]] program rejected his application. In 1956, he transferred to [[Eglin Air Force Base]] near [[Fort Walton Beach]], Florida. While serving at Eglin, he took evening classes at [[Florida State University]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thompson, Hunter S. |url=http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-03546.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507121617/http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-03546.html |archive-date=May 7, 2017 |access-date=August 3, 2012 |website=American National Biography Online}}</ref> At Eglin, he landed his first professional writing job as [[Sports Journalism|sports editor]] of the ''Command Courier'' by lying about his job experience. As sports editor, Thompson traveled around the United States with the Eglin Eagles [[American football|football]] team, covering its games. In early 1957, he wrote a sports column for ''[[Northwest Florida Daily News|The Playground News]]'', a local newspaper in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. His name did not appear on the column because Air Force regulations forbade outside employment.<ref name="whitmer" />

In 1958, while he was an [[airman first class]], his commanding officer recommended him for an early [[honorable discharge]]. "In summary, this airman, although talented, will not be guided by policy," chief of information services [[Colonel (United States)|Colonel]] William S. Evans wrote to the Eglin personnel office. "Sometimes his rebel and superior attitude seems to rub off on other airmen staff members."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHmc5IJaeC0C&pg=PA28 |title=Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson |publisher=Da Capo Press |year=2004 |isbn=1-56025-605-2 |edition=2 |page=28}}</ref>

===Early journalism career===
After leaving the Air Force, Thompson worked as sports editor for a newspaper in [[Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania|Jersey Shore]], Pennsylvania,<ref name="songsdoomed">{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Hunter |title=Songs of the Doomed |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=2002 |isbn=0-7432-4099-5 |edition=Reprint |pages=29–32}}</ref> before relocating to New York City. There, he audited several courses at the [[Columbia University School of General Studies]].<ref name="www.aspentimes.com-2016">{{Cite web |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Columbia University scholarship for veterans to be named for Hunter S. Thompson, says wife |url=https://www.aspentimes.com/entertainment/activities-events/columbia-university-scholarship-for-veterans-to-be-named-for-hunter-s-thompson-says-wife/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200622040637/https://www.aspentimes.com/entertainment/activities-events/columbia-university-scholarship-for-veterans-to-be-named-for-hunter-s-thompson-says-wife/ |archive-date=June 22, 2020 |access-date=June 19, 2020 |website=aspentimes.com |date=July 18, 2016 |language=en-US}}</ref> During this time, he worked briefly for [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] as a [[copy boy]] for $51 a week. At work, he typed out parts of [[F. Scott Fitzgerald]]'s ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' and [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s ''[[A Farewell to Arms]]'' to learn the authors' rhythms and writing styles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wills |first=David S. |title=High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism |publisher=Beatdom Books |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-9934099-8-1 |location=Scotland |page=11 |language=English}}</ref> In 1959, ''Time'' fired him for [[insubordination]].<ref name="proudway">{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Hunter |title=The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman |publisher=[[Ballantine Books]] |year=1998 |isbn=0-345-37796-6 |editor-last=Douglas Brinkley |edition=1st |page=139}}</ref> Later that year, he worked as a reporter for [[Times Herald-Record|''The Middletown Daily Record'']] in [[Middletown, Orange County, New York|Middletown]], New York. He was fired from this job after damaging an office [[candy machine]] and arguing with the owner of a local restaurant, who happened to be an advertiser with the paper.<ref name="proudway" />

[[File:Hunter S. Thompson (self-portrait photograph - Hell's Angels author photo).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|alt=Photograph showing just the head of a man with a serious expression, aviator sunglasses, a full head of medium-short hair, and a visible collar of a leather jacket|Self-portrait photo of Thompson {{circa}}{{nbsp}}1960–1967]]

In 1960, Thompson moved to [[San Juan, Puerto Rico]], to take a job with the sporting magazine ''El Sportivo'', which ceased operations soon after his arrival. Thompson applied for a job with the Puerto Rican English-language daily ''[[The San Juan Star]]'', but its managing editor, future novelist [[William Kennedy (author)|William J. Kennedy]], turned him down. Nonetheless, the two became friends. After the demise of ''El Sportivo'', Thompson worked as a [[stringer (journalism)|stringer]] for the ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' and a few other stateside papers on Caribbean issues, with Kennedy working as his editor.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 7, 1997 |title=Hunter S. Thompson: 'Proud Highway' (audio) |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1038689 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004215417/http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1038689 |archive-date=October 4, 2013 |access-date=August 3, 2012 |publisher=NPR}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=William Kennedy Biography |url=http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/wjkennedybio.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120208091741/http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/wjkennedybio.html |archive-date=February 8, 2012 |access-date=August 3, 2012}}</ref>

After returning to mainland United States in 1961, Thompson visited San Francisco and eventually lived in [[Big Sur]], where he spent eight months as security guard and [[property caretaker|caretaker]] at [[Slates Hot Springs]], just before it became the [[Esalen Institute]]. At the time, Big Sur was a Beat outpost and home of [[Henry Miller]] and the screenwriter [[Dennis Murphy (screenwriter)|Dennis Murphy]], both of whom Thompson admired. During this period, he published his first magazine feature in [[Rogue (magazine)|''Rogue'']] about the [[artisan]] and [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] culture of Big Sur and worked on [[The Rum Diary (novel)|''The Rum Diary'']]. He managed to publish one short story, "Burial at Sea", which also appeared in ''Rogue''. It was his first piece of published fiction.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wills |first=David S. |title=High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism |publisher=Beatdom Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-0993409981 |location=Edinburgh |pages=90}}</ref> ''The Rum Diary'', based on Thompson's experiences in Puerto Rico, was finally published in {{Not a typo|1998}} and in 2011 was [[The Rum Diary (film)|adapted as a motion picture]]. [[Paul Perry (author)|Paul Perry]] notes that Thompson exhibited extreme homophobia while at Big Sur, making violent threats to expel gay bathers from local hot springs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Perry |first=Paul |title=Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson |publisher=Thunder's Mouth Press |year=1992 |isbn=1-56025-065-8 |edition=First Trade Paperback Printing 1993 |pages=59–61}}</ref>

In May 1962, Thompson traveled to South America for a year as a correspondent for the [[Dow Jones & Company|Dow Jones]]-owned weekly paper, the [[National Observer (USA)|''National Observer'']].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kevin |first=Brian |title=Before Gonzo: Hunter S. Thompson's Early, Underrated Journalism Career |language=en-US |work=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/hunter-s-thompsons-pre-gonzo-journalism-surprisingly-earnest/361355/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006212055/https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2014/04/hunter-s-thompsons-pre-gonzo-journalism-surprisingly-earnest/361355/ |archive-date=October 6, 2017}}</ref> In Brazil, he spent several months as a reporter for the [[Rio de Janeiro]]-based ''Brazil Herald'', the country's only English-language [[Newspaper#Types|daily]]. His longtime girlfriend, Sandra Dawn Conklin (subsequently Sondi Wright), joined him in Rio. They married on May 19, 1963, shortly after returning to the United States, and lived briefly in [[Aspen, Colorado]]. Sandy was eight-months-pregnant when they relocated to [[Glen Ellen, California]]. Their son, Juan Fitzgerald Thompson, was born in March 1964.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178251/stories-i-tell-myself-by-juan-thompson/ |title=Author Bio for Stories I Tell Myself |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=Penguin Random House |access-date=April 12, 2023 |quote=JUAN F. THOMPSON was born in 1964 outside of San Francisco, California, and grew up in Woody Creek, Colorado. |archive-date=April 12, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412162428/https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178251/stories-i-tell-myself-by-juan-thompson/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=mckeen /> During the summer of that same year, Hunter began taking [[dextroamphetamine]], which is what he would predominantly use for writing until around 1974, when he began to write mostly under the influence of [[cocaine]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/ode-to-the-letters-of-hunter-s-thompson/600808/|title=Hunter S. Thompson's Letters to His Enemies|first=James|last=Parker|date=November 10, 2019|website=The Atlantic|access-date=April 6, 2023|archive-date=April 6, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406051926/https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/ode-to-the-letters-of-hunter-s-thompson/600808/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Thompson continued to write for the ''National Observer'' on an array of domestic subjects during the early '60s. One story told of his 1964 visit to [[Ketchum, Idaho]], to investigate the reasons for [[Ernest Hemingway]]'s [[Ernest Hemingway#Idaho and suicide|suicide]].<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Brinkley |first=Douglas |date=March 10, 2005 |title=The Final Days at Owl Farm |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7092353/the_final_days_at_owl_farm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018060554/http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/7092353/the_final_days_at_owl_farm |archive-date=October 18, 2007 |access-date=August 3, 2012 |magazine=Rolling Stone}}</ref> While there, he stole a pair of [[elk]] antlers hanging above the front door of Hemingway's cabin. Later that year, Thompson moved to San Francisco, where he attended the 1964 GOP Convention at the [[Cow Palace]]. Thompson severed his ties with the ''Observer'' after his editor refused to print his review of [[Tom Wolfe]]'s 1965 essay collection ''[[The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby]]''.<ref>Brinkley, Douglas or Sadler, Shelby. {{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Hunter |url=https://archive.org/details/fearloathinginam00thom |title=Fear and Loathing in America |publisher=Simon & Schuster |year=2000 |isbn=0-684-87315-X |editor-last=Douglas Brinkley |edition=1st |page=784 |url-access=registration}} Introduction to letter to Tom Wolfe, p. 43.</ref> He later immersed himself in the [[drug culture|drug]] and [[hippie]] culture [[History of San Francisco#"Summer of Love" and counterculture movement|taking root in the area]], and soon began writing for the [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]] [[underground paper]] ''Spider''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Louison |first=Cole |title=This is skag folks, pure skag: Hunter Thompson |url=http://www.ithaca.edu/buzzsaw/archive_skag.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060903032602/http://www.ithaca.edu/buzzsaw/archive_skag.htm |archive-date=September 3, 2006 |access-date=August 3, 2012 |website=Buzzsaw Haircut |publisher=Ithaca.edu}}</ref>

===''Hell's Angels''===
{{See also|Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs}}

{{multiple image
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| image1 = Hell's Angels by Hunter S. Thompson (1967 1st ed jacket cover).jpg
| alt1 = Book cover with a photo of a man in a patched denim jacket
| caption1 = {{resize|''Hell's Angels'' (1967)}}
| image2 = 318 Parnassus Ave San Francisco.jpg
| alt2 = Photo of a gray three-story townhouse with red-tiled roofs on a sloped street
| caption2 = {{resize |318 Parnassus Ave.}}
| footer = While he wrote ''Hell's Angels'', Thompson resided in a house near San Francisco's [[Haight-Ashbury]] neighborhood.<ref name="TheBatterySF2018">{{Cite web |last=Joseph |first=Jennifer |date=December 22, 2018 |title=The Haight-Ashbury's History and Heyday: How the 'Ground Zero of Hippiedom' Happened |url=https://www.thebatterysf.com/article/the-haight-ashbury |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112013012/https://www.thebatterysf.com/article/the-haight-ashbury |archive-date=November 12, 2020 |access-date=August 15, 2020 |website=The Battery}}</ref>}}

In 1965, [[Carey McWilliams (journalist)|Carey McWilliams]], editor of ''[[The Nation]]'', hired Thompson to write a story about the Hells Angels <!-- no apostrophe in gang's actual name, though most media overcorrect by adding one -->[[Outlaw motorcycle club|motorcycle club]] in California. At the time, Thompson was living in a house near San Francisco's [[Haight-Ashbury]] neighborhood, where the Hells Angels lived across from the [[Grateful Dead]].<ref name="TheBatterySF2018" /> His article appeared on May 17, 1965, after which he received several book offers and spent the next year living and riding with the club. The relationship broke down when the bikers perceived that Thompson was exploiting them for personal gain and demanded a share of his profits. An argument at a party resulted in Thompson suffering a savage beating (or "stomping", as the Angels referred to it) when Thompson intervened to protect a dog and a woman from physical abuse by a punk.<ref>{{Cite web |title=On the Wild Side |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/29/specials/thompson-angels.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901121828/https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/29/specials/thompson-angels.html |archive-date=September 1, 2021 |access-date=September 1, 2021 |website=archive.nytimes.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 12, 2017 |title=The Night Hunter S. Thompson Got Stomped by Hells Angels |url=https://www.ozy.com/true-and-stories/the-night-hunter-s-thompson-got-stomped-by-hells-angels/74874/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210901121836/https://www.ozy.com/true-and-stories/the-night-hunter-s-thompson-got-stomped-by-hells-angels/74874/ |archive-date=September 1, 2021 |access-date=September 1, 2021 |website=OZY}}</ref> [[Random House]] published the hard cover ''[[Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs]]'' in 1966, and the fight between Thompson and the Angels was well-marketed. [[CBC Television]] even broadcast an encounter between Thompson and Hells Angel Skip Workman before a live studio audience.<ref>{{Cite web |title=RetroBites: Hunter S. Thompson & Hell's Angels (1967) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccyu44rsaZo |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211029/ccyu44rsaZo |archive-date=October 29, 2021 |access-date=August 3, 2012 |website=Youtube | date=July 7, 2010 |publisher=CBC}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

A ''[[New York Times]]'' review praised the work as an "angry, knowledgeable, fascinating, and excitedly written book", that shows the Hells Angels "not so much as dropouts from society, but as total misfits, or unfits—emotionally, intellectually, and educationally unfit to achieve the rewards, such as they are, that the contemporary [[social order]] offers". The reviewer also praised Thompson as a "spirited, witty, observant, and original writer; his [[prose]] crackles like motorcycle exhaust".<ref name="nytimes">Fremont-Smith, Eliot (February 23, 1967), "Books of The Times; Motorcycle Misfits—Fiction and Fact." ''The New York Times'', p. 33.</ref>

Thompson also aided [[Danny Lyon]] in his role as photographer with the [[Outlaws Motorcycle Club]], telling Lyon that he should not join the club unless "it was absolutely necessary for photo action".