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- The daily routine of Hunter S. Thompson would give most self-help junkies a panic attack.
The daily routine of Hunter S. Thompson would give most self-help junkies a panic attack.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me."
The author of the classic semi-autobiographical novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson, is to journalism what Ernest Hemingway is to literature.
Both revolutionized their field. There’s journalism before Thompson, and there is journalism after him.
Also, the two writers had reputations that preceded them.
Yes, Hunter S. Thompson was a character, and a pretty fucking awesome one at that.
He famously said,
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.
Thompson’s revolutionary approach to journalism, coupled with his cravings for chaos and larger-than-life attitude, immortalized him as one of the wildest writers in American history.
Don’t believe me?
Hunter’s routine is so crazy you’d think it’s fiction.
In her book Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson, biographer E. Jean Carroll starts the first chapter with a detailed account of the writer’s daily routine that would give most self-help junkies a panic attack.
3:00 p.m. Rise
3:05 p.m. Chivas Regal with the morning papers, Dunhills (these are a brand of cigarette).
3:45 p.m. Cocaine
3:50 p.m. Another glass of Chivas, Dunhills
4:05 p.m. First cup of coffee, Dunhills
4:15 p.m. Cocaine
4:16 p.m. Orange juice, Dunhills
4:30 p.m. Cocaine
4:54 p.m. Cocaine
5:05 p.m. Cocaine
5:11 p.m. Coffee, Dunhills
5:30 p.m. More ice in the Chivas
5:45 p.m. Cocaine, etc., etc.
6:00 p.m. Grass to take the edge off the day
7:05 p.m. Woody Creek Tavern for lunch-Heineken, two margaritas, coleslaw, a taco salad, a double order of fried onion rings, carrot cake, ice cream, a bean fritter, Dunhills, another Heineken, Cocaine, and for the ride home, a snow cone (a glass of shredded ice over which is poured three or four jiggers of Chivas.)
9:00 p.m. Starts snorting cocaine seriously
10:00 p.m. Drops acid
11:00 p.m. Chartreuse (French herbal liquor), cocaine, grass
11:30 pm. Cocaine, etc, etc.
12:00 a.m. Midnight, Hunter S. Thompson is ready to write
12:05-6:00 a.m. Chartreuse, cocaine, grass, Chivas, coffee, Heineken, clove cigarettes, grapefruit, Dunhills, orange juice, gin, continuous pornographic movies.
6:00 a.m. The hot tub-champagne, Dove Bars, fettuccine Alfredo
8:00 a.m. Halcyon (sedative used to sleep)
8:20 a.m. Sleep
Deep inhale.
I know. Holy shit!
E. Jean Carroll writes, “I have heard the biographers of Harry S. Truman, Catherine the Great, etc., etc., say they would give anything if their subjects were alive so they could ask them some questions. I, on the other hand, would give anything if my subject were dead. He should be. Look at his daily routine.”
E. Jean would get her wish about 12 years later.
Cause of death: not drugs or alcohol, but suicide.