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Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream
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The inspiration for the major motion picture directed by Terry Gilliam, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro
“A scorching epochal sensation!”—Tom Wolfe
First published in Rolling Stone magazine in 1971, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever experienced. The writer’s account of an assignment he undertook with his attorney to visit Las Vegas and “check it out,” the book stands as the final word on the highs and lows of the 1960s, one of the defining works of our time and a stylistic and journalistic tour de force.
- Print length204 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherKnopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Publication dateMay 12, 1998
- Dimensions5.19 x 0.57 x 8 inches
- ISBN-109780679785897
- ISBN-13978-0679785897
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From the Publisher
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
On assignment from a sports magazine to cover "the fabulous Mint 400"--a free-for-all biker's race in the heart of the Nevada desert--the drug-a-delic duo stumbles through Vegas in hallucinatory hopes of finding the American dream (two truck-stop waitresses tell them it's nearby, but can't remember if it's on the right or the left). They of course never get the story, but they do commit the only sins in Vegas: "burning the locals, abusing the tourists, terrifying the help." For Thompson to remember and pen his experiences with such clarity and wit is nothing short of a miracle; an impressive feat no matter how one feels about the subject matter. A first-rate sensibility twinger, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is a pop-culture classic, an icon of an era past, and a nugget of pure comedic genius. --Rebekah Warren
From the Inside Flap
Now this cult classic of gonzo journalism is a major motion picture from Universal, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. Opens everywhere on May 22, 1998.
From the Back Cover
Now this cult classic of gonzo journalism is a major motion picture from Universal, directed by Terry Gilliam and starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. Opens everywhere on May 22, 1998.
About the Author
The best source on Thompson's writing style and personality is Thompson himself. His books include Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (1966), Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream (1972), Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 (1973); The Great Shark Hunt: Strange Tales from a Strange Time (1979); The Curse of Lono(1983); Generation of Swine, Gonzo Papers Vol. 2: Tales of Shame and Degradation in the 80's (1988); and Songs of the Doomed (1990).
Product details
- ASIN : 0679785892
- Publisher : Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Publication date : May 12, 1998
- Edition : 2nd
- Language : English
- Print length : 204 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780679785897
- ISBN-13 : 978-0679785897
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.19 x 0.57 x 8 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #3,956 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2 in Mid Atlantic U.S. Biographies
- #2 in Western U.S. Biographies
- #7 in Journalist Biographies
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Ralph Steadman (born 15 May 1936) is a British artist best known for his work with American author Hunter S. Thompson.
Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Dave [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Hunter S. Thompson is incomparably the most celebrated exponent of the New Journalism. His books include Hell's Angels, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and Generation of Swine.
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