Hunter S. Thompson and Gonzo Journalism: a guide to the research

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify and annotate resources related to Hunter S. Thompson and Gonzo Journalism.

Design/methodology/approach

Numerous searches are performed in online library catalogs, online databases, and web search engines to identify monographs, journal articles, multimedia titles, and web sites relevant to the topic. Resources located in the searches are then reviewed and annotated by the author and selected for inclusion in the paper based on their relative quality.

Findings

A great deal of popular work has been devoted to Thompson and Gonzo Journalism, but also a surprising amount of scholarly analysis. Most primary source material is now available in monographic form, and critical literature is fairly evenly distributed between journal articles and monographs. Search results for Thompson and Gonzo Journalism are often complicated by a number of factors, but these can be compensated for by using search limiters.

Research limitations/implications

Because of the sheer volume of work, scholarly and popular, devoted to Thompson and Gonzo Journalism, it is not possible to provide a comprehensive evaluation of all of the materials on the topic. While every attempt is made to be inclusive, the goal of the guide was to include the best sources on the topic, and some resources are reviewed but not included because of quality issues. A number of un‐annotated bibliographies are referenced that would be helpful in directing readers to additional resources not included here.

Originality/value

Although there are bibliographies of Thompson's work, none are annotated or prepared with academic researchers in mind. In addition, none of the bibliographies located in the course of researching the paper attempted to identify academic journal literature related to Thompson or Gonzo Journalism.

Citation

Hoover, S. (2009), "Hunter S. Thompson and Gonzo Journalism: a guide to the research", Reference Services Review, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 326-339. https://doi.org/10.1108/00907320910982811