Hunter Stockton Thompson (July 18, 1937 – February 20, 2005) – was an American journalist and author. As a writer he is remembered most for his flamboyant and humorous style. He enjoyed employing action verbs to comically spin outlandish tales that were completely unbelievable, yet provided a unique viewpoint to accurately describe the underlying reality at hand. Thompson almost always wrote in first person narrative, and his stories became so colorfully contrived that they easily slipped into the realm of fiction; however, the basic framework of the story he told was very often true. Thompson’s writing style and 'Gonzo Journalism' has been widely imitated; his influence on American Writers of the latter half of the 20th century is undeniable. In his writing, he cultivated the persona of a dangerously absurd, drug-crazed journalist bent on comic self-destruction. While his fictional persona largely mirrored his actual life, Thompson noted that he sometimes felt obligated to live up to the fictional self that he had created. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.