Hell's Angels (book)
Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (originally published with the subtitle The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs) is a book written by Hunter S. Thompson, published in 1967 by Random House.[3] It was widely lauded for its up-close and uncompromising look at the Hells Angels motorcycle club, during a time when the gang was highly feared and accused of numerous criminal activities. The New York Times described Thompson's portrayal as "a world most of us would never dare encounter."[4][5]
Author
Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs
English
United States
278
66-18327
It was Thompson's first published book and his first attempt at a nonfiction novel.
Effects and criticism[edit]
Hell's Angels was the book that launched Thompson's career as a writer. Even though by this point in his career he had published numerous articles for various journals and newspapers and was recognized as a journalist, the book was his first true exposure to a national audience. Reviews of the work were generally very positive and despite a poor performance on the publicity tour by Thompson, who was by his own admission drunk or exhausted for nearly every interview, the book sold relatively well. Even so, Thompson himself made little from the royalties from early editions of the book, a misfortune he blamed on a succession of agents and the book's publisher, Random House.
Thompson's treatment of a gang-rape by Hell's Angels was criticized by feminist Susan Brownmiller in her 1975 book Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape.[11]