city: louisville
the pendennis club
from hunter s. thompson posted in literature by pete_nice
The Pendennis Club is a members-only social club located in Louisville, KY.
In the debauchery of Hunter S. Thompson's "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved," Thompson and Ralph Steadman arrive at The Pendennis Club:
"One of my clearest memories of that vicious time is Ralph being attacked by one of my old friends in the billiard room of the Pendennis Club in downtown Louisville on Saturday night. The man had ripped his own shirt open to the waist before deciding that Ralph wasn't after his wife. No blows were struck, but the emotional effects were massive.
Then, as a sort of final horror, Steadman put his fiendish pen to work and tried to patch things up by doing a little sketch of the girl he'd been accused of hustling. That finished us in the Pendennis."
view full location details...hunter thompson mural
from hunter s. thompson posted in literature by pete_nice
On the side of bar/restaurant in Louisville known as The Monkey Wrench, there is a mural depicting Hunter S. Thompson.
view full location details...churchill downs
from hunter s. thompson posted in literature by pete_nice
On May 2, 1970, Hunter S. Thompson arrived at Churchill Downs to cover the Kentucky Derby for Scanlan's magazine. His subsequent article, "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved," was the first time he worked with long-time collaborator- illustrator Ralph Steadman. It is also considered to be Thompson's first widely read use of overtly unobjective, first-person "Gonzo" journalism.
view full location details...hunter s. thompson’s childhood home
from hunter s. thompson posted in literature by pete_nice
The Thompson family moved to this residence on December 2, 1943, when Hunter was six years old.
A local blogger recounts some of Hunter's childhood stories here.
view full location details...louisville male high school
from hunter s. thompson posted in literature by crabapple
Hunter S. Thompson transferred to this high school in September 1952.
He was accepted as a member of the Athenaeum Literary Association, a literary group at the school, and contributed a number of articles for them.
He was kicked out of this group in 1955 because of legal problems, and some biographers view this as the beginning of his resolve against social class hypocrisy.