As a quick refresher, Hunter S. Thompson was a larger than life journalist and author who founded what he called the ‘gonzo’ school of journalism, in which no claims of objectivity are made and the journalist is often a central part of the story. His most famous work, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, is a cult classic, was serialised in Rolling Stone magazine and was made into a film starring Johnny Depp, who was Thompson’s buddy. Thompson was a brilliant writer who drank a lot, took prodigious quantities of drugs, committed suicide and specified that his ashes be fired from a cannon at his funeral, which also had fireworks and was attended by people like Senator John Kerry, Johnny Depp, Bill Murray, Jack Nicholson and Sean Penn. He was, all told, a character. Sample this: “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked f

In this context, it should be no surprise that Thompson wasn’t known for holding his tongue. In the 1970s, when he was closely associated with Rolling Stone magazine, he received a letter from Anthony Burgess, who owed the publication a ‘thinkpiece’ article; in it, Burgess (a literary powerhouse himself, having written the iconic The Clockwork Orange) suggested that he send in a 50,000-word novella instead. Thompson was not pleased, as you will see in his reply to Burgess, published in a book called Letters of Note, by Shaun Usher and posted on Imgur . In fact, Thompson turned the rejection letter into a near-art form. Check out another doozy here.