Growing Up Gonzo: Excerpts From the Oral History of Hunter S. Thompson

William Kennedy (the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Ironweed," was the managing editor of the "San Juan Star" in 1959) : "For Hunter it was a career and lifestyle breakthrough. His life was professionally itinerant after he went to South America for the National Observer. He went anyplace and wrote whetever moved him in his own way — up to a point. It was heavily edited, and there were limitations on what he could say. But it established his name, modestly, and he managed to distinguish himself through subject matter and attitude."