When the Going Gets Weird: The Twisted Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson

HST is my absolute favorite author but this is a so so bio. I knew about most of these events HST had described and even HST tried to block it. Interesting, but not mind blowing.

This is the most fact-filled accurate and complete biography of Hunter S Thompson thus far. Also, it contains an interesting psychological profile of Hunter S. Thompson because the author is a Ph.D. psychologist.

I read Thompson's collected letter's, but they are no substitute for this very well-done biography. The author is not doing literary criticism, it is true- he is doing biography. Unlike most interviews/biographies about this wonderfully unique character, he doesn't drool all over the subject. Thompson did some great work, and the persona he crafted was spectacular. This book, along with the collections of letters, makes clear what a tragedy is the result of attempting to stay on the edge for all of these years. His recent work is all recycling and incoherent parodies of himself. HST is a wasted hull of a man and a mind. His alter ego became himself and the result was a tremendous waste of talent and creativity. The quality of HTS's correspondence in The Proud Highway makes this all the more clear. I am grateful for what he gave- it's just a shame he couldn't keep a handle on it.

It's great background for anyone just becoming interested in Thompson's life and work.

It's a shame this book is out of print. As one of three Hunter Thompson biographies published in the spring of 1993, Whitmer's was the only one that wasn't an utter embarrassment to its author or publisher. He actually did some concerted, smart research, thought about his subject, did more reporting and obviously wrote more than a single draft of the book. The fact that Whitmer has a brain and knows how to use it didn't hurt. And unlike Perry & Carroll, Whitmer can write. In addition to having done more and better research than his rivals, his prose is clean, fluid and graceful. Both stylistically and factually, this is the only Thompson biography worth reading.