From a Wall Street Journal review by Benjamin Shull of the book “Savage Journey: Hunter  S. Thompson and the Weird Road to Gonzo” by Peter Richardson:

In the spring of 1970 Hunter S. Thompson descended on Churchill Downs to write about the Kentucky Derby for Scanlan’s Monthly. The article that resulted, “The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved,” didn’t so much cover the race as present an outlandish image of the scene on hand. In turbocharged first-person prose, accompanied by macabre illustrations by Ralph Steadman, Thompson narrates his experience of arriving in Kentucky and gawking at the wanton and gluttonous crowd.  Thompson’s friend Bill Cardoso, the editor of Boston Globe magazine, wrote to share his compliments: “You’ve changed everything. It’s totally Gonzo.”

Fr0m a story on thenation.com by Peter Richardson headlined “5 Lessons From Hunter S. Thompson”:

Fifty years ago, Rolling Stone asked Hunter S. Thompson to cover the 1972 presidential campaign. In some ways, the assignment made perfect sense. Already a seasoned journalist, Thompson was basking in the success of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which the magazine had run the previous month. When Random House published the book version to enthusiastic reviews in 1972, Thompson consolidated his position as Rolling Stone’s most popular writer.