Sondi wright biography
- Birth name: Sandra Dawn Conklin.
- Description: Sondi Wright is the ex-wife of Hunter S. Thompson.
- Alternative name.
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COLUMN: What Hunter S. Thompson can teach us
“As things stand now, I am going to be a writer. I’m not sure that I’m going to be a good one or even a self-supporting one, but until the dark thumb of fate presses me to the dust and says ‘you are nothing’, I will be a writer.”
― Hunter S. Thompson, Gonzo
I’ve always had an insatiable appetite for any and all knowledge pertaining to the Sixties. Arguably one of the most gripping decades in modern history, the stark contrast between the beginning and the end of those turbulent 10 years has long piqued my curiosity about the evolution of American values, as well as the contribution those values made to the formation of the counterculture movement.
My fascination with this era ultimately led me to the work of Hunter S. Thompson, an unconventional figure in American journalism and the founder of “Gonzo” style journalism. I was a freshman in high school, determined to delve deep into the study of beatnik literature, biographies about counterculture icons a
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Hunter S. Thompson: Growing Up Gonzo
I. COMING OF AGE IN LOUISVILLE
Sandy Thompson (now Sondi Wright) met Hunter in 1958 and was married to him for seventeen years.
Hunter was born different – very different. He was angry. He was charming. He was a lot of trouble. And what I always used to say – which is interesting, in light of the end of his life – was that he shot out of the womb angry. And then he left that same way.
Neville Blakemore grew up with Hunter in the Highlands neighborhood of Louisville, Kentucky.
My grandmother owned a house a block away from Hunter’s. It was a neighborhood in which people would sit on the porch and talk to the people walking by. In the afternoon we’d listen to radio programs like Superman and Sky King. Television did not exist.
Deborah Puller was Hunter’s personal assistant from 1982 to 2003.
Hunter’s mother told me that he was born a night owl. She cursed him for that – “Oh, God, he never slept at the same time as his brothers.” But Virginia loved
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Behind the Dedications: Hunter S. Thompson
On February 16, 2005, Hunter S. Thompson was sitting in his home in Woody Creek, Colorado. Football season had just ended, which always left him morose, but he was also suffering from surgery-related pain in his hip and back, which made walking difficult—to say nothing of his favorite activities, swimming and blowing things up. Instead, the then 67-year-old author composed a typewritten note addressed to himself:
No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun—for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax—This won’t hurt.
Four days later, Thompson shot himself. He was sitting at the kitchen table, where he did much of his writing.
Before his death, Thompson had published 15 books—some journalism, some fiction, many his own brand of the two, which a friend dubbed “gonzo journalism.” Throughout those works, Thompson pays tribute to his family,
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