In 1965 Hunter Thompson was living in San Francisco. He had recently
quit the National Observer and was dead broke. When Carey McWilliams
sent him a query, enclosing a report of the California Attorney
General's office on motorcycle gangs and an offer of one hundred dollars
for an article, Thompson accepted. He later expanded his Nation article
into his bestselling book, Hell's Angels. Thompson, the founder of
"gonzo" journalism, went on to write, among other books, Fear and
Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 and The Great Shark Hunt.