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Remember to check out the HST & Friends section for more biographical information.



1950-1959

  • Personal events are in purple
  • Gonzo literary events are in amber-orange

July 3, 1952 - Jack Thompson dies after a lengthy period of fatigue brought on by a rare disease, myasthenia gravis.

Spring 1956 - HST and five friends are arrested in Danville, KY for vandalism and proceed to do $200 worth of damage to the jail.

June 1956 - HST and two others arrested in robbery. HST spends graduation in jail; Ralston Steenrod and Sam Stallings Jr. go free on account that "they had pull". HST spends 30 days in jail, writing long and lengthy letters to friends. He is released early on condition that he enlist in the Air Force.

Fall 1956 - Hunter enters into the U.S. Airforce and works on the base paper as a sportswriter.

November 8, 1957 - Hunter is honorably discharged from the Airforce. Alleged base dispatches are later reprinted in The Great Shark Hunt.

Early 1958 - Hunter lives in New York City, works as a copyboy for Time and attends Columbia University on a partial scholarship.

Early 1959 - Hunter moves to the Catskill mountains to work on a novel, Prince Jellyfish.

1959 - Meets Sandy Dawn, his future wife in NYC.

Spring-Summer 1959 - HST works for a short time at the Middletown Daily Record, ticking off advertisers and attacking the candy machine.

Fall 1959 - Hunter and friend Paul Semonin move to Puerto Rico to work for El Sportivo, a bowling magazine.

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