Two days after Hunter S. Thompson’s suicide, mb’s Morning Newsfeed rounds up newspapers’ reflections & reactions:
WaPo: Thompson’s style was wildly and vividly his own and brought him cult-like status and widespread recognition. LAT: Thompson remembered as “larger than life.” NYDN: More Thompson books still on the way. USAT: In Thompson’s literary legacy, his work competes with his antics. Salon: Thompson blasted through the world like a big-finned rocket of defiance and revulsion. He leaves a big burned hole and a safer, duller world. Salon: Sonny Barger, Rosalynn Carter, Ben Fong-Torres and others remember the wild life and times of Hunter S. Newsday: Thompson requested that his ashes be shot out of a cannon. AJR: A longtime Thompson admirer ventures into his Colorado redoubt in 1996 with a six-pack of beer. LAT: Thompson was new journalism’s dark prince. SFC: Thompson’s career was more than just a party. His gonzo legacy began with writing and transcended persona, writes Michael Taylor .
Also of note: Tom Wolfe’s recollections in the WSJ (“Hunter’s life, like his work, was one long barbaric yawp…”); Ralph Steadman’s homage in the Independent (“Maybe he is the Mark Twain of the late 20th century. Time will sort the bastard out.”); and one very strangely worded opening paragraph in the Business Standard (“Hunter S Thompson shot himself this week, before I could slide over to his ‘fortified farm’ outside Aspen, complete with peacocks and an awesome collection of rifles, shotguns, and revolvers, and say thank you.”)