I don't know how much the death of Hunter S. Thompson will reverberate across the culture but his influence certainly looms large in our household. I read much of his early writing for Rolling Stone at the time it appeared, back when Rolling Stone was printed on cheap folded newsprint. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, and his early volume of collected writings The Great Shark Hunt were all devoured by my peer group. The concept of a personal journalism, of the author being part of the story, of freely editorializing along with the facts seemed the embodiment of the "personal is political" view.

I miss him.

Update: A friend of mine wrote a nice personal piece called "Mistah Gonzo, He dead."