Book Description

First published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is Hunter S. Thompson's savagely comic account of what happened to this country in the 1960s. It is told through the writer's account of an assignment he undertook with his attorney to visit Las Vegas and "check it out." The book stands as the final word on the highs and lows of that decade, one of the defining works of our time, and a stylistic and journalistic tour de force. As Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote in The New York Times, it has "a kind of mad, corrosive prose poetry that picks up where Norman Mailer's An American Dream left off and explores what Tom Wolfe left out."
This Modern Library edition features Ralph Steadman's original drawings and three companion pieces selected by Dr. Thompson: "Jacket Copy for Fear and Loath-
ing in Las Vegas," "Strange Rumblings in Aztlan," and "The Kentucky Derby Is Deca-
dent and Depraved."

... Read more

Reviews (35)

This book made me get into reading; I picked it up because
of the simple fact that it involved drug abuse and that was something that excited me very much at that time (that was sophomore year in high school, I'm a senior now) but I discovered the pure ferocity and scholarly humor this book contained, the good doctor created something that he himself has never been able to recreate, now don't get me wrong, I love his other books, I'm just saying that this one is his best book. It tells the tale of Raoul Duke, Hunter's alter ego and his lawyer Dr. Gonzo, who is based on Oscar Acosta and their adventures during a trip to Las Vegas to cover the Mint 400 race, it takes place around 1971, the year is very important because, well, do I actually have to say anything? Anyway, because of Hunter, I myself have chosen to undertake journalism as a career, it changed my life, why not try it, can't hurt, can it?

The Best True Story, Drugs are only part of the story!
This book (I can tell you from experience) is a very real account of what goes on in the life of a SMART full blown drug addict. I say smart because Hunter S. Thompson is an intelligent guy who knows enough to analyze what happens to himself when takes such drugs as mescaline and acid. He is able to put it down on paper and give you the stunning reality in such a way that you can feel Dr. Gonzo wave that knife in your face in a drug crazed frenzy. Some will say that the story is embellished, and they are just saying that because they have never lived life the same way as Thompson has. Nobody can describe in such grave detail the world of drug abuse without having done it. There is also a plot that lies in the story that others never saw. A plot that has nothing to do with drugs. This plot is about the greed that lies within the people of america today. If your not going to be too horrified by the drug abuse to see this grim reality that the book portrays, then you will see what I am talking about. The book is also about psychology and analyzes the mind and the way that people think, but says it in such a way as to be amusing for the reader.

Gonzo to the max
Though I wasn't around for its inital debut, I am still aware of the impact Fear and Loathing has had on anyone who cared to listen.
This is a truly timeless classic that depicts the life and death of an All-American generation. No other piece of literature or journalism can even come close to reliving this unprecidented epic.
As a journalist, dope fiend and HST fanatic, I can say with conviction that this work will forever remain a priceless journey into the generation of the flower children.
I mean what else can I say? The world of professional journalism will never be the same... Only a true genious can manage to be both informative and exciting.

Wild...
Very wild and crazy book. Very funny and yet very sick, it is sad how a someone can inflict so much horror to oneself, that is what makes it worth reading. I am just glad it was not me strung out that badly with a buddy who is far more messed up. The book has a rather quick flow, everything moves quickly as if you are also strung out on some of the many drugs the good doctor was on...

A Very Interesting Book
A Very Interesting Book
Have you ever heard someone declare that they were living the American dream? This is perceived to be a laid back life where everything goes your way. During the reading of Fear and Loathing, Thompson proclaims to be living it, or maybe it was the drugs that made him escape from reality on the short journey to sin-city. Thompson's documented escapade to Las Vegas may leave D.A.R.E. founders rethinking their motto. The story consists of Hunter Thompson with his Samoan attorney in a fresh and clean convertible dubbed the "Great Red Shark," on their way to Las Vegas to cover a story. In their trunk, they stow "two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half-full of cocaine and a whole galaxy of multicolored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers.... A quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyl's," which they manage to consume during their short tour. That shows how crazy these two individuals must be. And get this; it is all a true story. The book was made from notes he had taken and recorded in a small recorder during his extraordinary adventure in sin-city.
The book was probably the most intriguing book that I have ever read. Throughout the whole
Literature he describes every moment in perfect detail. There never seemed to be a dull moment. Most scenes are centered round paranoia and sudation and at times hallucinations from all of the drugs they consumed while on their journey. I also enjoyed the book because through every escapade it felt like I was right there with him. I found myself looking forward to reading it; usually I don't enjoy reading.
The book never really gave a basic purpose of what Hunter Thompson was trying to say. Towards the end of the book it just kind of leaves a lot of information out of what was going on. Maybe that's how he was feeling at the time towards the end though. He might of not known exactly what was going on because of all the hallucinogens, uppers, and downers. But, I think that it was supposed to be about a time in a person's life where it is good to escape from reality and act a fool. That was the only shortcoming of the book to me. I found it very interesting and entertaining. I also found myself laughing out loud at the hilarious array of the literature and the situations they were involved in. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading bazaar and funny literature. ... Read more

Book Description

NPR commentator Hollis Gillespie's outrageously funny -- and equally heartbreaking -- collection of autobiographical tales chronicles her journey through self-reckoning and the worst neighborhoods of Atlanta in search of a home she can call her own. The daughter of a missile scientist and an alcoholic traveling trailer salesman, Gillespie was nine before she realized not everybody's mother made bombs, and thirty before she realized it was possible to live in one place longer than a six-month lease allows. Supporting her are the social outcasts she calls her best friends: Daniel, a talented and eccentric artist; Grant, who makes his living peddling folk art by a denounced nun who paints plywood signs with twisted evangelical sayings; and Lary, who often, out of compassion, offers to shoot her like a lame horse.

Hollis's friends help her battle the mess of obstacles that stand in her way -- including her warped childhood, in which her parents moved her and her siblings around the country like carnival barkers, chasing missile-building contracts and other whimsies, such as her father's dream to patent and sell door-to-door the world's most wondrous key-chain. A past like this will make you doubt you'll ever have a future, much less roots. Miraculously, though, Gillespie manages to plant exactly that: roots, as wrested and dubious as they are.

As Gillespie says, "Life is too damn short to remain trapped in your own Alcatraz." Follow her on this wickedly funny journey as she manages to escape again and again.

Reviews (25)

"Bad Neighborhood," good book
"Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales From A Bad Neighborhood" is probably the best title so far this year. And, unlike with many books, the contents live up to it. Writer/NPR commentator/translator/airline attendant Hollis Gillespie shares nuggets of her life (and razor-edged wisdom) in this offbeat, zany memoir.

Gillespie draws readers into her life, past and present: Her three best pals are Lary (who offers to shoot her sometimes), Daniel (a likably weird artist) and Grant (gay bartender/seller of porno-religious signs made by an angry ex-nun). She struggles with horrible bleach jobs, jars of teeth, imperfect German ("It would please me greatly to purchase medicine for my fluid nostrils"), and Myrtle the lesbian ghost.

She suffers the world's least dignified mugging, a visit to the Amsterdam red light district (rubber fists?), and the question of whether she flashed people when she was soused. At the same time, Gillespie deals with more touching topics. As the daughter of an alcoholic trailor-salesman and a kleptomaniac bomb-making mom who wanted to be a beautician, she describes her family's trials and distances, one of the last visits to her terminally ill mother, and how her young niece was hospitalized.

"Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch" veers between wacky and touching, past and present. Gillespie's stories are less like a memoir or autobiography than like a collection of columns, loosely strung together. She also has the unique knack of being able to take little experiences, ramble about them in an engaging way, and wrap it up without losing her way.

Gillespie comes across as real and a bit twisted, like the zany pal of yours who lives down the street. Life keeps swinging at her, and she keeps dodging. Her tone is honest, endearingly self-deprecating, with a dose of sarcasm to keep her observations sharp. Backing her up are her likably eccentric pals, who serve as her partners in crime (translation: in ear-piercing and drinking).

Funny and poignant and strange, "Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch" is a unique look at a witty woman who tells us of her personal storms. Wickedly delicious and highly recommended.

The recollections of a hellish gargoyle who talks on NPR
The fact that Hollis Gillespie is a commentator on NPR is more important to know than the fact that her name translates into "Hellish Gargoyle" because it provides a big hint as to how you should read "Bleachy-Haired Honky Bitch: Tales from a Bad Neighborhood." I made the mistake of reading the book pretty much straight through on connecting airplane flights, which I thought was appropriate since Gillespie worked as a flight attendant as well as a foreign-language interpreter, but that proved not to be the case. There are several dozen commentaries in this book (you cannot really upgrade them to the status of either chapters or essays), almost all of which are in the two to four page range in terms of length. Consequently, the ideal way of reading this book is to put it on the nightstand and to read a couple of entries each night before you go to sleep.

Actually the best way of thinking of this book is as a collection of conversations. This makes a big difference because Gillespie tends to repeat herself from time to time in terms of phrases, descriptions, and events. If this was a paper written by a student I would make sage comments about not arguing the same thing in two different places, but if this is a conversation you just acknowledge that you have heard this part before and let Gillespie continue to tell her story.

As with any conversation some parts are better than others. For my money the first one, where Gillespie explains that her first name means "hellish" in bad German and that her translation abilities consist of massacred phrases pronounced perfectly, is the funniest in the entire book (plus it is a more accurate title than what she has, which was just a passing insult by a guy she was trying to run down with her car). This makes for getting off of the right foot, but it also suggests a way in which it is all down hill from here. That is not really the case, because there are some gems scattered throughout the book, such as "The Long Good-bye." Her relationship with the lesbian ghost in her house is interesting, but clearly not as important as her relationship with her dying mother. There is as almost as much pathos in this book as their is humor.

Those looking for a narrative theme have picked up the wrong book. Gillespie writes about her family and her friends, as well as the various trials and travails that assail a young woman in the world today. There are some photographs, taken by the aforementioned family and friends, scattered throughout the book and one of them seems particularly insightful. It shows Hollis standing next to her siblings and the family dog, Echo. Kim, Cheryl, and Jim and all wearing solid colors and standing up straight, while little Hollis in her plaid dress is standing wit her legs at an angle. If this is not a sight of what is to come, then I do not know foreshadowing.

However, the key psychological insult comes when Gillespie confesses she collects old pictures that she finds at flea markets and thrift stores. The pictures of her own family have long been abandoned and now just clutter the empty corridors of her memory, and she has replaced them with new ones. Reading that revelation it becomes clear what key roles Daniel, Grant, and Lary play in her life. This is one of those books where you can pick up a lot in between the lines.

Bleachy-Haired babe!
A friend got me this for my birthday and my only regret is that it isn't longer and she doesn't have any other books out...

When I grow up, I wanna be Hollis.

Had me laughing out loud!
This book was a real page turner! This collection of randomly assorted personal accounts by the author, really allows its reader to say to oneself, "I'm not so weird after all." Her collection of strange obsessions and proclamations makes even the most insecure freak, feel right at home. The term "freak", in a GOOD way. This book also emphasizes the value of the various human connections we make throughout our lives. The assorted adventures the author described sharing with her compadres throughout her book is almost envious. A definitely, highly recommended read.

Bleachy-Haired Honky (...)
One of the funniest books I've read lately, along with some heart-breaking observations. I don't know why everyone's hung up on the "chapters" not going in order; they're essays, not a narrative memoir. I liked it so much I just bought one for my sister, and I'll look for more by Hollis Gillespie in the future! ... Read more

Book Description

Love-ins and sit-ins, the "back to the earth" movement, nude beaches, the "New Age" quest for spirituality, reggae culture and The Grateful Dead, the New York Mets, and life on Martha's Vineyard-from an early age Peter Simon has delighted in documenting the world around him through photography. Here is his life's work thus far, an astonishing record of the far-ranging experiences of his generation, featuring many of the major figures, both in the mainstream and counter-culture, of the past 40 years. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

If You Remember the '60's...
It's been said that if you remember the '60's you probably weren't really there. It's a good thing Peter had a camera because he probably would have been wondering himself what those days were like. Parts of his world, beautifully recorded, jar our memories. Whether these memories are painful or delightful, they are part of our collective story. Many '60's communes didn't allow photographs, so these may be rarer than one assumes. The book is worth looking at and reading.

Uninspired photographs and more boomer self aggrandizement
I wanted to like this book, I really did, but I couldn't get past the amateurish tone as Simon retreads that well trod path that amounts to the sixties generation stations of the cross--wealthy childhood, discovering drugs and sex at college, dropping out and living off your parents on a commune, plugging into Eastern philosophies and, finally, capitalizing on "the good old days". I found the photographs mundane and the essays almost unbearable as Simon chronicles his constant drug taking and drifting from place to place. As another reviewer wrote, I don't think we would have seen this book printed if not for his name and his celebrity sister.

Makes me wish I was born a few years earlier
Peter Simon is a talented photojournalist, and this book is the story of his life, with a definite emphasis on the 60's and early 70's counterculture years, which he lived to the fullest. It's all here: the protests, living on a commune, the eastern spiritual gurus, flirtations with nudism, the (impressive) series of hippy girlfriends, the rock stars (he's Carly Simon's brother).

I'm sure other members of his generation will find the book very nostalgic. As for me, it's almost enough to make we wish I'd been born 10 or 15 years sooner. I went to college during the early years of the Reagan administration. The 60's obviously weren't a very happy time, but it would be hard to imagine someone of my generation putting out a book like this: who would care?

The later chapters of the book are an odd lot of whatever he was shooting during those years of his life. Therefore we have some baseball coverage, some photos of landscapes and his celebrity friends on Martha's Vineyard and some coverage of Woodstock 1999. I'd judge these chapters as substantially less interesting than the early ones.

One thing this book does illustrate is the importance of connections in getting a book of photography published. I'm not saying it's not a worthy project: it certainly is. But a lot of worthy projects are never published, and it's hard to believe his sister's celebrity and his family's connections in the publishing industry ("Simon" is the "Simon" in "Simon & Schuster") weren't key factors, especially for a virtually unknown photographer.

A Titillating Journey
Ah! From the intricacies of Tree Frog Farm to the open arms of MV's shores, the reader is webbed into every fiber of Peter's life through his descriptive words and vivid photographs - so much so, that he leaves you with a dream of being one of the free spirits on the beaches of Martha's Vineyard.Thank you, Peter, for the journey!

A Great Retrospective from a Well-Timed and Well-Placed Man
In my humble opinion, the baby boomer generation lived through some of the most captivating days our world has seen. In their 57 years (and growing) life, these people have witnessed heroes rise and fall, movements come and go, events take place and gracefully (or not) assume their places in the books of time. Peter Simon seemed to always be at the right place at the right time with his ever-ready camera aimed in history's direction. His eyes, both literally and creatively speaking, have witnessed Jackie Robinson play at Ebbetts Field; they saw student unrest at Boston University in the late 1960s; they watched his generation live simply off the earth in nature-based communes in the 1970s; they traveled with Grateful Dead and Bob Marley; they captured the 1986 Mets' victory over the Red Sox in the World Series; and dearest to my heart, his eyes have seen Martha's Vineyard come of age along with he, himself. If you lived through these days, or if you wish you had, I and Eye is more than a wise choice. It is a chronicle of your greatest memories and imaginations - one that you will want to hold in the deepest space in your mind.
-
A fan,
Craig Sherman ... Read more

Amazon.com

In the mildly entertaining memoir Cad: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor, former New York Times reporter and pop-culture critic Rick Marin chronicles the years of marathon dating and shallow living that followed in the wake of his failed "starter marriage." Marin moves through a series of urbane exploits and short-lived affairs, perfecting his trademark move of whipping off his horn-rims midconversation in a "myopic gaze," holding court with his wingman Tad over the hot buffet at Billy's Topless, and regurgitating wisdom gleaned from The Godfather. Like the similarly self-indulgent How to Lose Friends & Alienate People, Cad has its memorablemoments--Marin comparing his wedding video to the Zapruder film and hitting on actress Moira Kelly when she was still an ingénue living with her mom on Long Island--but the book's swinging, ring-a-ding-ding Rat Pack attitude feels noticeably forced and uninspired, leaving a flat aftertaste to the whole affair. --Brad Thomas Parsons ... Read more

Reviews (41)

Entertaining, but not 'literature'
Coming out of an early marriage to a somewhat lost young woman, Rick Marin decides to embrace a "love 'em and leave 'em" single life. Readers who enjoy "Bridget Jones" type books or Cosmopolitan magazine will enjoy this male perspective on the NYC dating scene.

For much of the book, the writer works freelance, including writing articles for fashion and beauty magazines such as Allure and Mademoiselle. Although his work may address things naive women can do when 'he' doesn't call, the writer is more cavalier in his own life--he doesn't call because he never had any intention of calling you and doesn't care. Many of the female characters in the book are self involved, insecure, or just flighty, offering some amusement in the cavalier treatment they receive from the cad. The vulnerability of some of these women sheds some unflattering light on the writer at times.

Consistent with other stories of this genre, the writer grows into an adult during the course of the book. Treatment of a family tragedy is conveyed well and with empathy, without being overly sentimental. However, the final pieces where the writer finds true love aren't consistent with the rest of the novel and feel like they don't quite fit.

Overall, a novel with some literary pretensions that manages to entertain most of the time.

A Jolly Ride.
First off, the title for the book is potentially misleading. Mr. Marin is not a cad as he is neither unprincipled nor ungentlemanly throughout the majority of his interactions. At one point a woman he works with wants to set him up on a blind date and he says "I have a girlfriend. I can't take her number." This is not the response of a cad. In the eyes of this reviewer, it appears that Mr. Marin is well within the range of average behavior for a man or woman in America throughout the 284 pages in which he describes himself. He is not a saint or a demon. At one point he even recites the motto of all anti-cads by saying that "sex is not enough."
Marin's is a story with great universality. His work will resonate with many unmarried straight people and there is much truth in it. His observation that "I'd spent so much time 'pouring my heart and soul into being insincere,' I'd forgotten how to act with a girl I actually liked" is an unhappy predicament that affects countless single adults. Re-igniting lost idealism and optimism is a highly daunting task and a foremost reason as to why finding love later in life is such a struggle. Those of us in our thirties all have emotional baggage and it invariably means that sometimes one has been brutalized in the past and can now be brutalizing in the future. This is true regardless of one's sex as we inflict pain but also have it inflicted upon us. Mr. Marin is far from an exception to this rule.
Much of Marin's status seeking in the memoir can be attributed to the old Orson Welles quote about men making civilization to impress their girlfriends but the narrator amends the saying it by changing it "to get girlfriends." He spends tremendous mental capital in the pursuit of making his career as a journalist a success but often finds that he needs monthly subsidies from his parents just to get by. Work is as chancy a venture as love is for Mr. Marin. It seems that his internal makeup and character are nearly insurmountable obstacles to Marin getting what he wants and needs out of life as he lacks the quality of 'decisiveness', which is one of the worlds greatest virtues, and his indecisiveness in all things sabotages his numerous opportunities.
What drives the action in Cad... is the author's attempt to recover and stabilize his life after the debacle of his divorce. This traumatizing event is key to any understanding of our aging anti-hero. In his three year marriage, Marin was flayed and flambéed by his ex-wife severely. By any configuration, his was an awful marriage. His narration humorously documented: "...even our goldfish were committing suicide. I found them on the floor halfway between the door and the window. Making a break for it, maybe. I didn't blame them." Marin had met a girl who cuckolded him and he ignored every portend of their relationship's doom ("after we were married, she was still introducing me as her 'friend'").
This book is a jolly good ride and, therefore, easy to recommend. Unlike other tell-alls, Marin never takes himself too seriously and shows that he can laugh at himself. One of my favorites lines is illustrative: "She called me an 'opportunist,' because I went to publicity events for the free booze. I'm a journalist!' I protested." Cad is a major surprise as the misandry embossed onto the back cover gave this reviewer a bad case of the heebie-jeebies, but, in the end, it is a far more valid description of the single life today than what one finds in practically every other memoir or publication.

Lighthearted and fun
There's nothing profound or meaningful about this book, but it sure is a good read. All guys will surely nod their heads in sympathy as they read each episode in this guy's landmine-filled love life. And I think most women would find it insightful, in a lighthearted sort of way. Rick Marin really does get right to the heart of what it means to be a single guy - not that we are all that complicated, mind you, so I'm not saying his achievement is worthy of any kind of prize, be it literary or sociological. But this book could have easily been written badly by a lesser author or lesser human being. Marin, I think, demonstrates quality in both categories.

Male answer to Sex and the City?
This might be Rick Marin's male answer to "Sex and the City." I think what Marin is trying to do with this book is show that men can be the flighty, fickle, and fake ones in the world. It's not an impressive read.

The book explores his exploits among New York's women from the point of view of a (supposedly) attractive Latin-Canadian. Marin's "Reference Train" is dated and out-of-touch. He discounts women because they have "bad shoes," or faces like the Easter Island statues, and when he likes a woman, it's because she has "good shoes" and doesn't take crap from him. Sex is a card he plays when he wants to.

Overall, unimpressive, not worth the money. If you must read it, try the library's copy.

A Great One Night Stand
RICK MARIN's "CAD" is pointless and meandering...and that's why it is entertaining. You probably won't reread it when you're done but you'll have fun reading it the first time. The only thing really holding it back is that a) the hip attitude seems forced as if Marin does not believe himself to be as cool as he wishes us to believe, and b) he doesn't seem to have an underlying modesty to take his actions with a grain of salt. We're laughing at him, not with him. In Rikki Lee Travolta's "MY FRACTURED LIFE" he covered all the same areas of womanizing and being a "cad" but never took himself too seriously. His is a book I continue to reread, like a regular fling. "CAD" though was like a one night, good for the moment. ... Read more

Book Description

In this witty, wise, and intensely personal collection of letters to her daughter Margo, Ann Landers delivers her own unintentional memoir. The volume is both a moving portrait of a mother/daughter relationship and a keen social history of America between 1958 and 2001. Peppered with incisive information and gossip, Esther "Eppie" Lederer (Landers’s real name) offers insight on everything from marriage and divorce to growing up and growing old. Readers will delight in Landers’ s signature practical wisdom and sharp eye for the absurd. As funny and loving as they are stern and ascerbic, these letters reveal the real woman behind the Ann Landers moniker--a spectacularly original writer, wife, and mother. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

mother love
I loved this book. Given to me as a present, I had no idea what to expect and began reading it with a sense of uncertainty. But within a dozen pages I was completely held and involved. It is poignant, funny, wise and deeply engrossing, and full of practical advice on love, marriage, divorce, motherhood, and growing older. At times I got the guilty (but delicious) feeling that I was reading a good friend's private correspondence - it is that intimate and that honest. Some say that letter writing is a dead art, a form of communication that was killed off by the telephone and, more recently, the brutal abruptness of e-mail. But here it is resurrected in all its former glory. Full of good gossip and insights about famous names in show business, politics, the media and literature. there were moments when I laughed out loud and, occasionally, wanted to weep. I was honestly sad when I reached the end - so I started all over again. Happily, as one does in all good letters, I still found new things to surprise me. Margo Howard tells us that "letters were my mother's art form," and this book confirms that gloriously. Ms. Howard is no slouch at letter writing either, answering her mother's missives with equal wit, insights, and humanity. Those for whom this will be their first taste of the wit and wisdom of Ann Landers - or Margo Howard, who has followed in her mother's footsteps as an agony aunt - have a treat in store.
... Read more

Book Description

Brilliant, provocative, outrageous, and brazen, Hunter S. Thompson's infamous rule breaking -- in his journalism, in his life, and of the law -- changed the shape of American letters and the face of American icons. Kingdom of Fear traces the course of Thompson's life as a rebel -- from a smart-mouthed Kentucky kid flouting all authority to a convention-defying journalist who came to personify a wild fusion of fact, fiction, and mind-altering substances.

Call it the evolution of an outlaw. Here are the formative experiences that comprise Thompson's legendary trajectory alongside the weird and the ugly. Whether detailing his exploits as a foreign correspondent in Rio, his job as night manager of the notorious O'Farrell Theatre in San Francisco, his epic run for sheriff of Aspen on the Freak Power ticket, or the sensational legal maneuvering that led to his full acquittal in the famous 99 Days trial, Thompson is at the peak of his narrative powers in Kingdom of Fear. And this boisterous, blistering ride illuminates as never before the professional and ideological risk taking of a literary genius and transgressive icon. ... Read more

Reviews (40)

Memoirs of a true outlaw
Unlike many reviewers of this book, this was my first experience reading one of Hunter S. Thompson's books. Having seen the bizarre and hilarious film, Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, however, I had some idea of what to expect (I look forward to reading that book). So the fact that some of this material may have been in previous books did not bother me. On the other hand, not being familiar with the well known episodes of Thompson's life made the erratic and disjointed style of the book -he jumps from one time period to another without warning-- harder to follow than if I'd had some background. You simply cannot read an author like Thompson expecting a conventional style, and I appreciated his unique, if often drug-induced perspective. With Thompson, all of the usual barriers are meaningless, such as those that separate fact from fantasy, the humorous from the serious and even past from present. There is simply a barrage of words, emotions, perceptions and anecdotes, revealed in a seemingly random order.

Yet Kingdom Of Fear is not entirely without theme or structure. There is an underlying message, as the title suggests, that the nation is moving into a dark period that seriously jeopardizes our privacy and civil liberties. Thompson relates this post-Sept. 11, 2001 environment to episodes in his own life when authorities violated his rights. Unlike a book by the average political commentator or activist, however, Thompson makes his case with emotional verbal outbursts and poetic observations more than logical arguments. This is refreshing; Thompson's style is an anachronistic challenge to the overly regulated, homogenized and conforming culture that has been building, not only since 9/11, but over the last few decades.

A view like no other!
HST is bitingly funny in his recounting of episodes fighting against the System. In "The Witness" a has been well known porn star tries her damndest to set Hunter up for a BIG fall on drug charges and sexual assault. Thompson embarasses and shames the District Attorney and LEO's of Pitkin County (here in Colorado where he lives in Aspen).Thompson is, as always, his own person. Describing his days in SF working as Night Manager for the Mitchell Brothers famous O'Farrell Theater - THE center of pornography in it's heyday. Long running legal battles with Diane Feinstein and the leading edge of Freedom of Expression involving Sex in America. Oh enough BS! Thompson loved hanging out with strippers and other free spirits!

This is Thompson's first book since the September 11 attacks. He (accurately, in my opinion) feels that life in America will never be the same. Our generation and todays children, will be in a state of war for our lifetimes. He speculates that, for the first time in recent American history, the next generation will be less well off than the current generation. And America will relearn the sacrifices of previous generations. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Kingdom of Fear is a series of funny, irreverent memoirs describing events in Hunter S Thompson's life. He admits that some embellishing took place. A bit of what he writes about takes place in Aspen with quite a bit of Colorado "references" and landmarks, and personalities. Which (as a long time resident) I found enjoyable. The Ducati blast through "ranch" traffic and close calls with the "sausage maker" are hilarious.
The book has quite a few photographs including the back cover of Hunter buck naked except his famous hat firing a shotgun.
To sum up: As HST's good friend Warren Zevon wrote: "lawyers, guns and money"

A fun read from a guy who has led an interesting life!

Troubled thoughts and ruminations along the Proud Highway.
Hunter Thompson takes stock in his tumultuous life and assesses the current situation in America in a very aptly titled book. At its best, Kingdom of Fear evokes the glory days of Thompson. At its worst, it wallows in some rather pitiful encounters which may have been better left unsaid, such as his flirtation with an 8-year-old Xania.

Thompson launches into the current administration, as it inflicts its reign of terror on the civil liberties in this country. He recalls his bouts with the law, in particular a sordid case involving a former porn queen who takes him to court for allegedly abusing her at his home in Aspen. While he managed to survive these battles, he doesn't hold out much hope for the future because of the notorious Patriot Act.

But, his thoughts range far and wide, taking in his early years in Louisville and the proud highway to his remote home in Aspen, which he currently finds under seige from unscrupulous developers and former porn queens bent on ruining his mostly peaceful life. There is plenty of dark humor and pithy insights into the loathsome nature of the American dream. It is a very uneven book, but then that is what I have come to expect from Thompson, who hasn't been able to repeat his past great efforts such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.

I can't think of a title
What I really like about "Kingdom of fear" is that Thompson talks about events that happened or are happening during my lifetime, he doesn't do that with his other books, I was born in 87 so Thompson had started writing way before I was born and his other books are great (at least the ones I've read, I have not read them all yet) but I can't directly relate which prevents me from fully grasping Thompson's other works but this one I could. Hilarious reading, if you have that Thompson type of humor, Dr. Thompson is alive and well and this is proof

hit and miss, but worth it
On one hand, it's true that this is not Hunter's crown jewel. On the other hand, this one is not to be dismissed. While there are parts of this that are certainly slower than others, it is clear that HST is still a lover of the language so that his prose never fails to entertain, even when the subject matter becomes occasionally less intriguing.

What makes this book indespensible (to me) is some of Thompson's anecdotes about his childhood. One revelation in particular, relating to a situation where the FBI tried to haul him away while he was in his early teens, explains things about his adulthood that make it seem only natural for Thompson to become the outlaw he is.

I've passed on Thompson's books over the last 10-12 years. Maybe he didn't seem to have the devil in him anymore. Having said that, though, there are a lot of quotable moments in this particular book. He's got some devil back and when he is on he is ON, and when he is funny he is DAMN FUNNY. This one is hit and miss, but let's face it, even welterweight Thompson is hard to top. ... Read more

Book Description

Philip Caputo has been a witness to the most important struggles of our time, from the hot green hell of Vietnam to the dusty mountains of Afghanistan and the bloodstained streets of Beirut. In Means of Eascape, Caputo intersperses imaginative retellings of events he witnessed with true accounts of how he became a writer, and what happened when he was sent to some of the most dangerous places in the world. He begins with his childhood and budding career in Chicago. Soon after, he was deep in the Sinai Peninsula searching for the last authentic Bedouin, and reporting from the front lines of the Yom Kippur War. In an eerie parallel to journalist Daniel Pearl's tragic murder, Caputo was held hostage for a week by Islamic extremists while reporting in Beirut. Caputo's palpable descriptions of the captors and fellow cellmates in this razor-thin existence are as compelling as any escape stroy before or since. As he emerged from captivity, Peter Jennings congratulated him on his eventual escape, and on the Pulizer Prize he'd won while imprisoned. While continuing his work as a reporter in Beirut, he was singled out by a sniper, and received a bullet in his ankle and a chunk of wall in his head. In Afghanistan in the 1980s, he joined the Mujahideen for a clandestine mission and was nearly captured by Soviet forces. Few authors have put themselves so squarely in the center of the 20th century's great conflicts, and even fewer can describe what they saw as well as Philip Caputo does in this important memoir. (6 x 9, 416 pages)

Philip Caputo is the author of the New York Times best-seller A Rumor of War and three novels: Indian Country, DelCorso's Gallery, and Horn of Africa. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 as part of an investigative team for the Chicago Tribune, and his coverage of his experience as a captive of Palestinian guerrillas won him the Overseas Press Club's George Polk Citation. ... Read more

Book Description

Brazen, incisive, and outrageous as ever, Hunter S. Thompson is back with another astonishing volume of his private correspondence, the highly anticipated follow-up to The Proud Highway. When that first book of letters appeared in 1997, Time pronounced it "deliriously entertaining"; Rolling Stone called it "brilliant beyond description"; and The New York Times celebrated its "wicked humor and bracing political conviction."

Spanning the years between 1968 and 1976, these never-before-published letters show Thompson building his legend: running for sheriff in Aspen, Colorado; creating the seminal road book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas; twisting political reporting to new heights for Rolling Stone; and making sense of it all in the landmark Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. To read Thompson's dispatches from these years -- addressed to the author's friends, enemies, editors, and creditors, and such notables as Jimmy Carter, Tom Wolfe, and Kurt Vonnegut -- is to read a raw, revolutionary eyewitness account of one of the most exciting and pivotal eras in American history. ... Read more

Reviews (29)

Like A Steakknife Into the Heart of Journalism
Thompson's style illuminates his letters to freinds, creditors, debtors, associates, and enemies. This collection of Thompson's letters to the above showcase his unparrelled talents and imagination. No one rages or praises like Hunter S. His vitrolic rants are both scary (you can practically taste the bile) and engrossing (never have I heard the words ...; used so appropriately and w/ such abandon). This collection encapsulates the time Thompson wrote the letters ('68-'76), everything from the end of the hippies to Nixon to the music, and is loaded w/ political and pop culture references. The Proud Highway showcased Thompson's budding talents and raw prose, here his Gonzo style comes out clearer w/ each writing, and though, like The Proud Highway, wanes on certain letters, it will regain your interest in just a few pages. It's an insight into his life at that period, argueably his most brilliant time, when he wrote the now classic (which he predicted) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegs; The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. It also tells of Thompson's tale to run on the Freak Power ticket for Sherriff of Aspen, his strokes of humanity when dealing w/ people, and the backlash that is Thompson when he's treated poorly. A must for any fan of Hunter S. Thompson.

Fear and Loathing in the Heartland
When I started to read this book - I must admit, I was disappointed. Having read everything that Hunter Thompson had written, I was a lttle under whelmed at first. However, I started to warm to the book as the years ran by. I could picture the events described in his letters - the Vegas book, the 72 campaign trail, fall of Viet Nam, the fall of Richard Nixon thru his eyes - it brought back my own memories of the events. In the end, the Gonzo style of prose took over and I found myself devouring the book in big chunks. For anyone who wants to remember the crazy, wild times of the late 60's - mid 70's, there isn't a better book.

I again can not think of a title
Fear and Loathing in America is mainly for hardcore fans or people who after reading Fear and loathing in Las Vegas wanted to know what Thompson is really like and if all the strange myths and terrible legends they heard about Thompson are true or not, I myself am a big fan of Thompson and I enjoy this book quite a lot, I did not like it at the beginning, for two months is stood their on my bookshelf and one day, I gave it another go and I loved it, I was so surprised at how much I liked it, these days, I pick it up to a random page and read it. Long live Dr. Thompson

Some of the funniest reading ever...
...'course you'll have to work for it. This is a massive book that in my opinion isn't meant to be plowed through, but rather enjoyed from time to time.

A complition of his letters written over a decade or so (during his rise from a relatively obscure journalist/writer to cult hero) most every letter is interesting in one way or another, some are so funny that you'll be laughing about them for days.

HST's humor is unmatched in my opinion by any writer I've read. This book is an extraordinarily private, very insightful, often hilarious glimpse into one of America's most interesting social figures.

Enjoy...

More caustic ranting & opinions
I was a big fan of volume 1 of his letters- it was new and fresh and unlike anything I had read before. It seems as Hunter ages he sours rather than mellows, which for someone of his ilk isn't surprising. However it doesn't always make it for compelling reading either. He is so proud of his opinions, so righteous, with each letter trying to outdo the previous it gets like a one joke movie.
I also wish he would write what he knows and leave out the letters with personal opinions that aren't relevant, only there to wound and lift his pedestal a little higher. Specifically his anti-Christian tirade on page 55 in a letter to a reader of his remarkable "Hells Angels". Hunter explains that the Angels had no attitude toward Christianity, fine, he knows. However, not enough just to report, he puts down the pen and picks up his sword and writes, ". . . they (the Angels) have been spared the millstone of one of history's greatest lies." Really? Why? Couldn't leave it at just answering the question? Ego rules over reason again.
Read his first collection, its fresher and energetic. This collection is like visiting with a bitter old man who believes his opinions on everything are "breaking news". ... Read more

Book Description

In this "honest and searching look at the perils of growing up a black male in urban America" (San Francisco Chronicle), Washington Post reporter Nathan McCall tells the story of his passage from the street and the prison yard to the newsroom of one of America's most prestigious papers. "A stirring tale of transformation."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr., The New Yorker. ... Read more

Reviews (128)

most profound book i've read
Reading the other reviews of this book, and seeing that many reviewers wondered where McCall's self-judgement or remorse came in, I don't think this book would be the same if McCall spent 400+ pages whining about what mistakes me made. He lets the errors of judgement and difficulties of life stand out glaringly clear to all of those who should choose to read them.

This was one of the most profound, important books I've ever read for several reasons. One, it helped me understand the black male psyche from one point of view (mccall's) but when paired with other "prison" writings (cleaver, malcolm x) can help a non-black person understand the difficulties that black males go through in this society. Two, I teach in a poor neighborhood in NYC and this book helped me understand a lot of the mental stress and strain young children are under. When living amongst an oppressed people, where money/status/power/priviledge/mobility are slim, the tricks and games humans will play on each other to get ahead/survive may seem crazy or illogical to those of us who don't live that life. To those that do, it is real. I was better able to understand the pressures of being black, and the different masks black men wear, by reading this book. Three, this book shows how difficult it can be to turn around from past mistakes/actions, but how one must continue. McCall's life could've turned out so differently. He kept fighting and made it so he could have a "piece of the pie" and actually provide something to his children, and show his parents all their help was not totally lost, and prove to himself that he could do it. He said, after serving three years in prison, that he believed he could do anything if he made it out alive. That belief was tested at times when he went through difficulties at various workplaces, with his women, or in the transition back into society from prison. He even went so far as to think for a second that prison was an easier place to be (monastic) because there he could focus entirely on himself, and all threats were known entities. Four, this book helped me at a time in my life where i felt (feel) the walls are closing in on me. My problems are not so deep as McCall's, but i know what it feels like to feel that there are NO options, or the few you have are all bad, and you must simply do the best you can, keep thinking, keep struggling. This is a story of a spirit unwilling to throw in the towel, determined to carry out the strength that miraculously keeps it alive, striving, growing, despite all odds.

I will never forget this book. For those who say it ought to be required reading, I agree. It is an amazingly honest memoir. I'm not disappointed in McCall for not showing "remorse" or appearing contrite about what he's done. He lets his words speak clearly to us, showing us that he has learned from his mistakes, otherwise he'd be unable to sit down and write a book as honest and powerful as this one.

A well-written book about BM hypocrisy!!
I am an African American female.

I have very mixed feelings about this novel. What was GOOD -- explaining the criminal mind while engaging in a crime, high school rivalries, prison life, post-prison life.

What was SAD -- McCall's anger/hatred/violence directed at black women, the girls he gang-raped in high school, the one he planned to kill after sex in a car, his crazed criticism of his wife, his illegitimate children (again blaming their mother alone as if he himself never heard of a condom).

Also, SAD -- McCall had no problem committing crimes against black people in his own community yet he admitted that he would dare not challenge a White police officer's authority on the street! Also, this lying, raping, stealing excuse of a Black man gets caught by America's justice system and now he cries "racism" the way his female victims tried to cry "rape." Like them, no one hears McCall's cry. Next, McCall lies to get a job and is upset over getting caught! He steals and is upset over being watched by others! DUHH! -- MCCALL, YOU ARE MISSING A FEW FRIES FROM YOUR HAPPY MEAL!!

The worst part of this novel is that McCall grew up in a decent home with a father/stepfather. Yet McCall criticized everyone: his stepfather working for white people, Blacks who travelled, white people (yet he confessed having sex with a white woman was some kind of Black male rite of passage).

This is a well-written book by a very disturbed criminal who happens to be a black male. (The book's subtitle is a complete misnomer!!) The only time McCall claims "Blackness" was when he got himself in trouble and needed a way out.

The author should NOW write about victim compensation.
I read this book some years ago and was more impressed then than now. Unlike most authors, Mc Call actually admits that he was a an active participant in a gang rape. To actually have such a violent and humiliating crime published in one's own autobiography, the author would have to be very honest, insane or a liar.

As hideous as some parts of this book, I still gave this book to my nieces, daughters and other young Black impressionable females who seem to mindlessly believe anything a Black man tells them. Some months after my adolescent niece read McCall's works, she confessed that she completely broke ties with a young man she had been dating because he showed a lot of Mc Call's tendencies. Some years later, this same young man has impregnated several different women, 3 of which gave birth to his children in the same week (while he was unemployed). Today, he is doing a life sentence in prison for violent crimes.

As disturbing as Mc Call's work is, I have used it for good. Every mother should know where her son is at night. Also, blaming white people for your problems is no reason for McCall commiting the same sins (color casting, rape and robbery).

Finally, if Mc Call committed all the crimes he claims, he should now publish a NEW novel covering his efforts at some form of victim restitution to the individuals, businesses and others he has violated in his past. Well, how about it, Mr McCall?

Makes me wonna scream!
I read Nathan McCall's book when it came out in 1995. On the one hand, here's a guy who became a gang-banger, thug and all-around menace to society, eventually serving time in prison for armed robbery, but eventually got on the right track and is now a reporter for the Washington Post. Good story. When I first read the book I was impressed. Not anymore.

McCall describes a life growing up in a solid, lower-middle-class family. In his early teens, he joined a gang. Soon, he participated in the gang-rape of a young girl. Eventually, he graduated to burglaries, holdups and gang fights, shooting a loaded pistol at unarmed teens. His political conscience awakened by the Black Panthers, which ultimately led to his racist hatred for white people, which he uses as justification for the barbaric acts perpetrated by him and others against whites. For example, he once fired a sawed-off shotgun into the suburban home of a white family watching TV, and then ran off without knowing (or, apparently, caring) whether anyone was hit.

Instead of taking responsibility for his actions, admitting to his mistakes, and trying to warn impressionable young black men NOT to make the same mistakes that he made, McCall tries to show that it was "racism" that caused him to make the choices he made. By the end of the book, it seems he wants to reader to be impressed with his generous decision to "forgive" white people. Forgive them for what? What did "Whitey" ever to do him to make him become a gang-banging, gang-rapist thug? How did that white suburban family provoke him into firing a sawed-off shotgun into their home, possibly seriously injuring (if not killing!) someone inside?

It is obvious that McCall was an angry young man. However, instead of delving into the real sources of his anger and dealing with it in a constructive way, he uses his anger, as well as his racism (let's call a spade a spade) to justify his criminal past.

Negro, Pu-LEEEZE!

I would have had more respect for him had he just owned up to his mistakes, as opposed to trying to justify his actions via "Whitey." "Makes Me Wonna Holler" makes me wonna scream.

Makes Me Wanna Holler : A Young Black Man in America
this is a geat book for anyone how wants to know the truth of how people were really treated in lif in this book nathan mccall really gives birds eye view of his life once u start reading this book u just dont want to stop ... Read more

Book Description

“Get it, read it, and pass it on.”—Bill Moyers

“Most Americans living today never heard Ed Murrow in a live broadcast. This book is for them I want them to know that broadcast journalism was established by someone with the highest standards. Tabloid crime stories, so much a part of the lust for ratings by today’s news broadcasters, held no interest for Murrow. He did like Hollywood celebrities, but interviewed them for his entertainment programs; they had no place on his news programs. My book is focused on this life in journalism. I offer it in the hope that more people in and out of the news business will get to know Ed Murrow. Perhaps in time the descent from Murrow’s principles can be reversed.”—Bob Edwards

... Read more

Reviews (10)

Pretty good, considering the format
Bob Edwards' biography of Edward R. Murrow is by no means comprehensive, but considering the restricted format of the Turning Points in History series, Edwards did a very good job hitting the high points of the life of the man responsible for establishing radio and TV news.

Edwards recounts all the notable moments--sprinkled liberally with quotes from Murrow's broadcasts and speeches--of Murrow's career, including his coverage of the development of WWII in Europe and the Blitz of London, and in later years, his crusade against Senator Joe McCarthy's red-baiting efforts for rooting out Communists. The book is very interesting and well-written, and includes bits of information about all the men (and women) whose careers Murrow shaped. Edwards' respect for Murrow is evident throughout the book; he gushes at times, though is not afraid to point out the times when Murrow may have erred in judgment.

Considering that one probably couldn't write a complete biography of a regular person in 160 pages, let alone the man responsible for the development of modern broadcast news, Edwards performed admirably in this effort. He covers all the high points of Murrow's career, and more importantly, explains why Murrow was so important, and shows the influence he still has on modern media.

Worth reading
I probably wouldn't have read this book if it hadn't been written by Bob Edwards. (I have a three foot pile of unread books. It used to be four feet, but I slowed my buying rate until I get caught up.)
Not reading it would have been a mistake.
This is a very readable, well written book. (I was actually through with the first chapter by the time it was my turn to get my book signed.) All of book in this series (Turning Point) are short and intended to be quick reads. Even though it is short, the book gives a good picture of the key events that shaped broadcast journalism today. It's surprising how many of the key people in television news well into the 1980's (and to a lesser extent, even to today) got their start with Ed Murrow.
For me, this book fills in the background to the TV news of my earliest memories. It explains how broadcast journalism got from the days of live radio relayed by short wave to the era of instant satellite transmissions around the world.
This book is definitely worth reading.

Good story from a time long past.
I remember Edward R. Murrow for two reasons: the reports from London during the blitz (which I only remember from more recent re-broadcasts as I was too little), and the 1953 broadcast that finally started the collapse of Senator Joseph McCarthy and one of the more shameful eras in our time which I saw live.

Making the change from radio to television, Murrow was one of the pioneers that attempted to develop the full potential of television to shape our lives. Remember this was an era before Sesame Street tought us that a few seconds of attention span is all that's needed, before politicans learned that the few second sound bite was all that's going to get on the air.

This was a time when the news was considered important instead of just another aspect of the ratings game.

The Birth of Broadcast Journalism
Edward R. Murrow is to broadcasting news just as Red Barber is to broadcasting baseball. The book is at once a brief history of a new and quicker way of delivering news to people during a critical time in the world's history in addition to profiles of other Murrow Boys such as Howard K. Smith, Richard C. Hottelet, William Shirer, Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, and other members who reported on World War II. Murrow's vivid descriptions of The Battle of Britian during August and September of 1940, and the Buchenwald death camp in 1945 showcase him for what he is, a reporter. Murrow and Bill Shirer had a falling out which Murrow later wanted to patch up, but Shirer would change the subject. Shirer felt Murrow was jealous that his book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich outsold Murrow's This Is London, while Murrow felt Shirer had grown complacent in his broadcasts. CBS boss William Paley released Shirer from employment. It's sad that two Giants who reported on World War II had this unfortunate falling out. The book is only 166 pages long, and is certainly worth your time.

Superb Murrow Biography Has Message for Journalism's Future
Bob Edwards' biography of Edward R Murrow is more than the interesting and well-written story of the life of this intriguing man. It is also a thoughtful look at the process by which broadcast news grew from empty entertainment to a window on the world's events that previous generations could never have imagined. In only 160 pages, we get a remarkably full view of what Murrow wanted to accomplish, the struggles he faced in trying to get there, and some of the disappointment Murrow faced at the end of his career, as the excellence and intellectual honesty he had brought to his broadcasts began to be eroded by corporate bureaucrats with lower intellectual standards and an eye only for the bottom line.

On the back of the book jacket, Edwards refers to Murrow as "someone with the highest standards. Tabloid crime stories, so much a part of the lust for ratings by today's news broadcasters, held no interest for Murrow ... I offer [this book] in the hope that more people in and out of the news business will get to know Ed Murrow. Perhaps in time the descent from Murrow's principles can be reversed."

There is real irony in those words, for, no sooner had this book been published, then the corporate bureaucrats at National Public Radio summarily fired Edwards as anchor of their flagship news show, "Morning Edition," which he had built over 25 years into the most-listened-to news show in radio broadcast history. The lame explanations about "natural evolution" of the show made no sense to most listeners, and "Morning Edition," which Edwards nurtured for a quarter century, is vastly less interesting without him. It hasn't descended to tabloid crime stories yet, but there are far more silly, feel-good puff pieces, and less rigorous news coverage and analysis than when Edwards sat in the anchor chair.

Ed Murrow's departure from CBS left Walter Cronkite as the nation's pre-eminent broadcast journalist, and Cronkite was a giant. But, with a few exceptions, broadcast journalism has suffered in the twenty years since Cronkite's retirement. Now, with Tom Brokaw's impending retirement from NBC, and Bob Edwards' departure from NPR's Morning Edition, we the audience may be in for more and more empty "infotainment," and less and less news coverage that lives up to Ed Murrow's high standards. The light that Bob Edwards' little gem of a book has shined on Ed Murrow's life will at least help us to understand what we're losing, and just might help kindle a demand for a return to the kind of journalism that can nurture and sustain our democracy instead of titillating, or simply pandering to the lowest common denominator.

Bill Moyers is quoted as saying of this book, "Get it, read it, and pass it on." I heartily agree. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Few biographers convey their subjects' business abilities and personalities with equal acuity, but Washington-based journalist Christopher Ogden has done just that in this accomplished portrait of Moses Annenberg (1877-1942) and his son, Walter. Depicting Prussian-born Moe's rise in American publishing, Ogden captures the innovative circulation gimmicks and bare-knuckled competitive tactics that fueled the success of newspapers like the The Inquirer in Philadelphia and the Daily Racing Form (the Annenbergs' cash cow). He also unsparingly but sympathetically depicts Moe's terrible temper and willed blindness to the shadiness of some of his business practices and associates, which led to a two-year jail stint for tax evasion before he came home to die. Spoiled only son Walter, born in 1908, didn't really grow up until his father's conviction shocked him into finally focusing on the family assets, which he further enhanced by creating such pioneering niche publications as Seventeen and TV Guide. Ogden nails Walter's complex character as well, doing particularly well in evaluating the younger Annenberg's famous philanthropy--partly the result of his mother's nurturing and partly a burning desire to justify his father's choices and remove any taint from his legacy. A pleasing combination of colorful history and moving father-son drama. --Wendy Smith ... Read more

Reviews (5)

gbird and me: another legacy of annenberg will
Legacy does an accurate job of portraying POP the way he wanted it and believe me, he certainly controlled the content. As one who is most familiar as an insider, I can say that his goal was to build the image of greatness. Yes, Pop, you were great and no matter what the cost. In the end you won. To the family, you know how he was. Gbird if you get this, im still here, faithful as ever, yet still controlled by old walter from the grave.

An outstanding book by a great author.
After having read Legacy I had all of my beliefs about the Great Walter Annenberg confirmed. This man is truely a great and magnanimous individual. His donations are really unprecedented and you could say he has done more for education than any other American. I truely love this man. As an alum of the Peddie school I was astounded by his massive gift in 1993 and I do hope his actions will inspire other alumni to make similiar or even larger gifts.

An American 20th century story of the highest order
In this engaging and wonderfully written biography, Ogden describes with consummate skill the origins, careers, hardships and accomplishments of two remarkable men, Walter Annenberg and his father, Moses. Facinating insights on business dealings (sometimes hardball), White House maneuverings (not always exemplary), politics, government, social discimination and class structure in America from the end of the 19th century to the present abound. The childhoods and early family environments of both Annenbergs (quite different for each) are well described. The complexity of the father/son relationship (partly due to very different temperaments) and its continuing influence long after Moses Annenberg's death in 1942 is especially poignant. One need not have a special interest in media empires to find this book engrossing; an interest in the capacity to endure, adapt creatively, and prevail in stunning and magnanimous fashion is quite sufficient. This is a distinctly American 20th century story of the highest order.

An American epic that has it all
Just finished Legacy after a whirlwind of reading. Couldn't put it down. Each chapter of this brilliant biography flowed into the next. Author Ogden has done a magnificent job of weaving this father/son story together, managing to illustrate much of the American century through their compelling (and inspring) tale. Reads like a great novel. I will be recommending Legacy to everyone I know.

A fascinating tale of Rags to Riches
Chris Ogden proves once again that he is a superb biographer. His portraits of Walter and Moses Annenberg are as vivid as his splendid book on Pamela Harriman, "Life of the Party." Put this book at the top of your reading list! ... Read more

Book Description

Before there was Gonzo, there was just plain Hunter -- a precocious, earnest, and occasionally troublesome honor student in Louisville, Kentucky.

Before there was Doctor Thompson, there was Airman Thompson -- the military's answer to Grantland Rice, protecting America by covering sports for his Florida base's newspaper.

Before there was Fear and Loathing,there was Dow Jones -- that is, Thompson's early reportage for that company's National Observer, which raised the standard for hip and provocative foreign coverage.

Before there was Rolling Stone, there were job applications everywhere -- in hopes of being hired by a paper, pretty much any paper, an obsession for the starving writer with expensive tastes in alcohol, nicotine, and room service.

In The Proud Highway, readers will find a Hunter S. Thompson they've imagined but never known. With the publication of these extraordinary letters, written from the time of his high school graduation in 1955 through the triumph of his first book, Hell's Angels, in 1966, critics and fans can finally trace the development and maturation of a singular talent, one of our era's most important voices. How Thompson changed the face of contemporary nonfiction -- and of America itself -- is the mesmerizing story of The Proud Highway. ... Read more

Reviews (38)

The man who made Old Crow Famous!
I have just got through reading this collection of Letters and found it to be worthwhile reading. I received the book as a gift and was not aware of a Fear and Loathing Letters Volume. I found this to be a highway of following (if anyone possibly could) and watching Thompson grow as a writer. While at the Air Force Base working as an editor of the Sports Section, he wrote to his family and friends as well as ex-girlfriends. Probably because he was away from home for the first time.

As the years go on the more this book became more interesting. Between following all over this country we follow him to South America were some of his best articles came from. I have read Hell's Angels and The Great Shark Hunt and found this to tie in with those books. Through his consumption of Old Crow and god only knows what else, we see letters to LBJ, various magazine editors, and Mr. Semonin and start to see the Hunter we all know and love to come out. The thing that makes him "likeable" is his blunt honesty, since he calls them as he sees them. He is intelligent and knows a lot about everything. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to read Thompson!

If anything this book offers a chance to see what makes this amazing mind tick!

The compelling pre-gonzo mind at its finest
Perhaps, as Hunter Thompson suggests in The Proud Highway, people really do take more of a liking to his letters and not his serious work. This statement is easily endorsed by the fine contents that surround it. This is the perfect book for a typical Thompson fan, a collection of eccentric one plus page letters that suit a person with a short attention span. His sylistic prose is best received in short bursts, such as essays, articles, and letters. The letter format also allows us to see the evolution and experimentation Thompson has endured in his life. This pre-gonzo collection is Thompson as himself, not the "Raoul Duke" character he has personified in the past. While Hunter seems incapable of writing anything unautobiographical, the fact remains he is far more qualified to tell this story than any hack biographer seeking to romanticize and sensationalize Thompson's myth for a profit. The Proud Highway tells Thompson's story in a much more engaging fashion than the biographies, though there is no lack of effort and emulation in any of these books. This book should be required reading for aspiring authors.

HST at his best
Hunter S. Thomson came to the conclusion at a very young age that he was brilliant, and as a result made a point of saving his letters to prove it. Before Gonzo was Gonzo there was Hunter S. Thomason the lover of the written word, and this collection of letters lets you in on the adventure of an author coming of age. Like the readers of Hemmingway and Kerouac, if you are a lover of Hunter S. Thompson's writing you are more than likely a lover of Hunter S. Thompson - This book is for you. Anyone not familiar with HST will find in this book the archetypical American idealist: self reliant, self directed and uncompromising. However what makes Thompson unique is that he is able to write very, very well, and in so doing his journey is told with vibrancy and power that can only be told by a man who has done much, thought a lot, and wrote even more.

Editor Douglas Brinkley has done an outstanding job arranging Thompson's "trunk load of letters" from a mix of miscellaneous correspondences into a brilliant historical look at the history of America over latter half of twentieth century.

Simply awesome!
This is a must for every wannabe author. This is not simply for the diehard HST fan. The author speaks to everybody but for those born before 1964 it is particularly poignant, a real coming-of-age story. If this had been fiction, it would not have been published because it would have simply been too outrageous to accept. I'm sure in this case 90% of it is true, but only HST would know for sure -- and even he probably forgets much of it. (If you can remember the 1960's, you weren't there.)The softback copy has a great feel and look to it, the paper and the font. A great book to keep in your carry-on baggage even if it is a bit heavy.

Start with Hell's Angels, then move here
Did you ever secretly read someone's diary? You knew it was wrong but you couldn't help yourself. We do it because it offers a glimpse into a part of someone's personality that we may have not known. That's essentially what these letters are. When Thompson wrote them it's unlikely he ever intended for them to be open to the public. Although at one point he does make a prophetic statement about his suspicion that people like reading his letters better than his fiction. AND he did keep carbons of everything. No matter. This is completely entertaining. It's fascinating to the see the evolution of his writing and depth of his intellect. He really grows fangs and claws along the way and uses them, usually hilariously, to rip people to shreds. He says the things that we would want to but are afraid to. No one is off limits. Unfortunately, his incredible talent as a writer is overshadowed by his reputation for consuming freakish amounts of booze and pills. Everyone loves a freak show, right? But this shows his power--what made him great. If you're a writer, you'll especially love it. One note: If you've never read any Hunter Thompson, start with his breakout book, Hell's Angels, and then move here. Not only does Proud Highway culminate with the release of that book (which erupted Thompson's fame) but it also rumbles with energy and is a heck of a lot of fun. ... Read more

Book Description

The vivid, often startling memoir of a young woman shaped by two dramatically disparate worlds. Saira Shah is the English-born daughter of an Afghan aristocrat, inspired by his dazzling stories to rediscover the now lost life their forebears presided over for nine hundred years within sight of the minarets and lush gardens of Kabul and the snow-topped mountains of the Hindu Kush. Part sophisticated, sensitive Western liberal, part fearless, passionate Afghan, falling in love with her ancestral myth–chasing Afghanistan–Shah becomes, at twenty-one, a corr