Hunter S. Thompson's Daily Routine

If you went against every piece of advice ever given by any sort of half-traditional doctor, parent, clergy member, and wellness guru ever to exist, your day might look a little bit like Hunter S. Thompson's average Tuesday, at least according to one of his biographers.

Thompson was a writer known for creating gonzo journalism, which blends personal narrative with on-the-ground reporting. Part of what made him so influential was his notoriously unconventional personal habits, as exemplified by his typical day—or should we say, night.

Hunter S. Thompson's Daily Routine

In her book Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson, biographer E. Jean Carroll starts the first chapter with a detailed account of her subject's excesses. Here's what Carroll reports as a sample daily routine for the journalist (note that it begins at 3 p.m.):

3:00 p.m. rise
3:05 Chivas Regal with the morning papers, Dunhills
3:45 cocaine
3:50 another glass of Chivas, Dunhill
4:05 first cup of coffee, Dunhill
4:15 cocaine
4:16 orange juice, Dunhill
4:30 cocaine
4:54 cocaine
5:05 cocaine
5:11 coffee, Dunhills
5:30 more ice in the Chivas
5:45 cocaine, etc., etc.
6:00 grass to take the edge off the day
7:05 Woody Creek Tavern for lunch-Heineken, two margaritas, coleslaw, a taco salad, a double order of fried onion rings, carrot cake, ice cream, a bean fritter, Dunhills, another Heineken, cocaine, and for the ride home, a snow cone (a glass of shredded ice over which is poured three or four jig­gers of Chivas)
9:00 starts snorting cocaine seriously
10:00 drops acid
11:00 Chartreuse, cocaine, grass
11:30 cocaine, etc, etc.
12:00 midnight, Hunter S. Thompson is ready to write
12:05-6:00 a.m. Chartreuse, cocaine, grass, Chivas, coffee, Heineken, clove cigarettes, grapefruit, Dunhills, orange juice, gin, continuous pornographic movies.
6:00 the hot tub-champagne, Dove Bars, fettuccine Alfredo
8:00 Halcyon
8:20 sleep

Hunter S. Thompson's Work

Thompson first gained mainstream attention for his signature journalistic style in the 1970 piece "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved." The piece appeared in Scanlan’s Monthly, and focused on the excessive drinking and chaos that occurred among attendees of the event. Of course, it incorporated plenty of Thompson's own wild anecdotes from his experience there.

He went on to utilize this unique approach in the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream, which became his signature contribution to American letters. Ostensibly, it details Thompson's efforts to report on an off-road dune-buggy-and-motorbike-race in Nevada, but mostly it follows Thompson and his apparent attorney as they indulge in vast quantities of mind-bending drugs.

The book was a kind of postmortem for the counterculture spirit of the 1960s as well as a deep dive into the corruption of Las Vegas and the rot at the heart of the American Dream. Its abstract, distorted style makes it hard to pin down—and has made it an enduring classic, bolstered by Thompson's own larger-than-life persona.

Hunter S. Thompson's Life of Excess

Thompson was 34 when Fear and Loathing was published. He lived until the age of 67, when he died by suicide after years of suffering from chronic pain and various health issues. By all accounts, the author continued to indulge wildly in all manner of substances and excesses throughout his lifetime.

He once described his average breakfast in a Rolling Stone essay, writing: "The food factor should always be massive: four Bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crêpes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned-beef hash with diced chilies, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of Key lime pie, two margaritas and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert."

He also elaborated on his love of whiskey (and specifically, of the Wild Turkey-brand Kentucky bourbon) in a 1997 Atlantic interview. "Aw, man. I drank this like some sort of sacrament for—I mean, constantly—for I think 15 years. No wonder people looked at me funny," he said. "This is what I drank, and I insisted on it and I drank it constantly and I liked it." He was also known for declining to speak to interviewers until they had a glass of his beloved bourbon.

Was Hunter S. Thompson's Daily Routine Actually So Wild?

Some have contested the validity of Carroll's account, saying that it was a parody that riffed on Thompson's own tendency to blend fact and fiction. Indeed, it's hard to imagine anyone could survive such a daily routine.

According to various other accounts from Thompson himself and those who knew him, though, Thompson did indeed live his life fueled by a haze of acid, cigarettes, LSD, sleeping pills, copious quantities of alcohol, and up to 20 cups of coffee per day. All this makes the fact that he lived as long as he did into a rather impressive feat of endurance and a rather fortunate experimental endeavor all its own.

This post originally appeared in 2013; it has been updated for 2026.

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