Hunter S. Thompson was one of those writers whose lives start to matter more than their art. From almost the beginning, life and art were intentionally interwoven. Thompson's outsized appetites for drugs and food and stimulation were set into his hyperbolic prose. The story of the wrier was the story of the story. He was hardly the first to do it, but he did it in a fashion that made both the lifestyle and prose of Norman Mailer seem comparatively restrained.
Connecticut resident Cheryl Della Pietra was an aspiring young writer when she got the opportunity of a lifetime – to be Thompson's assistant. She’s written a new novel based on her gun-and-drug-fueled experiences of 1992 called Gonzo Girl.
We'll also talk to Thompson's former liaison at Rolling Stone, Corey Seymour.
Below is an interview of Thompson by Studs Terkel.
GUESTS:
- Cheryl Della Pietra - long time New York City magazine editor, author of Gonzo Girl
- Corey Seymour - Senior Editor at Vogue, co-author of Gonzo Girl: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson (2007)
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Chion Wolf contributed to this show.
