Editing Hunter S. Thompson (section)

===Birth of Gonzo===
{{Main|Gonzo journalism}}
Also in 1970, Thompson wrote an article entitled "[[The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved]]" for the short-lived New Journalism magazine ''[[Scanlan's Monthly]]''. For that article, editor [[Warren Hinckle]] paired Thompson with illustrator [[Ralph Steadman]], who drew [[expressionist]] illustrations with lipstick and eyeliner. Thompson's story virtually ignored the race and focused, instead, on the drunken revelry surrounding the annual event in his hometown. Writing in the first person, he sets the debauchery against the backdrop of the American political scene of the moment: President [[Richard Nixon]] had ordered bombing of [[Cambodia]] and four students had been killed by [[Ohio National Guard]] troops at [[Kent State University]], in a [[Kent State shootings|massacre]], which occurred only two days later.

Thompson and Steadman collaborated regularly after that. Although it was not widely read, the article was the first to use the techniques of [[Gonzo journalism]], a style Thompson later employed in almost every literary endeavor. The manic [[First-person narrative|first-person]] subjectivity of the story was reportedly the result of sheer desperation; he was facing a looming deadline and started sending the magazine pages ripped out of his notebook.

The first use of the word "Gonzo" to describe Thompson's work is credited to journalist [[Bill Cardoso]], who first met Thompson on a bus full of journalists covering the [[New Hampshire primary#1968|1968 New Hampshire primary]]. In 1970, Cardoso (who was then the editor of ''[[The Boston Globe]] Sunday Magazine'') wrote to Thompson praising the "Kentucky Derby" piece as a breakthrough: "This is it, this is pure Gonzo. If this is a start, keep rolling." According to Steadman, Thompson took to the word right away and said, "Okay, that's what I do. Gonzo."<ref name="cardoso-obit">{{Cite news |last=Martin |first=Douglas |date=March 16, 2006 |title=Bill Cardoso, 68, Editor Who Coined 'Gonzo', Is Dead |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/national/16cardoso.html |url-status=live |access-date=August 3, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523023233/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/national/16cardoso.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=c7b5fe5f62a5d95e&ex=1300165200&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print |archive-date=May 23, 2013}}</ref> Thompson's first published use of the word appears in ''Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas'': "Free Enterprise. The [[American Dream]]. [[Horatio Alger]] gone mad on drugs in [[Las Vegas Valley|Las Vegas]]. Do it ''now'': pure Gonzo journalism."