Spent the wet long weekend in Yosemite, so just heard late last night about the suicide of Hunter S. Thompson. He was one of my journalistic heroes — because he told it like it was and because he told it so well. An amazingly adept writer, his stylistic flourishes and lengthy sentences often had me in awe. I loved especially Proud Highway, Volume 1 — an epistolary work covering the writer’s youthful exploits, from growing up in Louisville, KY to serving in the U.S. Air Force to writing Hell’s Angels. It’s fascinating to see how much raw personality was evident so early, and to see him develop the writing style to express those intense energies. Farewell, Hunter S. Thompson.