Free Republic

Hunter S. Thompson did not invent Gonzo Journalism—but in a line borrowed from David Mamet, he gave it a name. Truman Capote attempted, with “In Cold Blood,” to fuse the fictional with the factual. Thomas Wolfe is a pioneer of the “new journalism” of the sixties, the meshing of the personal with the public. In academia, Stephen Greenblatt and the New Historicists solidified the idea that history could only be known fully by being reduced to the personal. But Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream” (1971) sits as a...

WASHINGTON -- Well, well, our debonair president, George W. Bush, has let the cat out of the bag. Caution! For our friends at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, that is just an expression. The President has not actually placed any cats in a bag. In fact, there is no bag, only this astonishing story. According to the International Herald Tribune he reads books. Yes, the thickest most illiterate president since Ronald Reagan is a reader, admittedly a closet reader. He does not boast of his erudition, as say Bill Clinton did. Remember when Clinton boasted about reading so...

From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk Published 2/27/2003 7:25 PM HIGHLANDS, N.C., Feb. 27 (UPI) -- This here's the 339th Report ta the Folks Back Home from the (More er Less) Honorable Billybob, cyberCongressman from Western Carolina. The beginnin subjeck this week izza marble angel carved by the father ov Thomas Wolfe what inspired the title ov his towerin novel, Look Homeward, Angel. It has some application ta modern American politics. Since ma able assistant, John Armor, Esq., izza lit'rary eggspert onna premises, I'll turn this over ta him. Thomas Wolfe's AngelOn a trip to Raleigh, the North Carolina...