Hunter S. Thompson was no choirboy. And in the drug- and booze-ingesting Raoul Duke, the central character in his seminal Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, the celebrated gonzo writer provided what admirers and detractors alike saw—and still see—as an apt alter ego.

But there was much more to him than that caricature. In a discussion of his book Freak Kingdom, George Mason University’s Timothy Denevi gives a forceful literary and political journalist his due. Denevi examines Thompson's role as a political writer from 1963 to Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.

The presentation coincides with the Library exhibit Ralph Steadman: A Retrospective, featuring the artwork of longtime Thompson collaborator Ralph Steadman.