Editing Hunter S. Thompson (section)

===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>