http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...ts/4282865.stm
Hunter S Thompson, the American counterculture writer, has been found dead at his home in Colorado.
Police said the 67-year-old shot himself. His body was found by his son.
He is best-known for his 1972 account of a drug-addled Nevada trip, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Other books are Hells Angels and Generation of Swine.
He pioneered "gonzo journalism", a factual style in which the writer was an essential part of the story, and was an acute observer of American life.
Decadence and depravity
In a statement to the Aspen Daily News, Thompson's son, Juan, said: "Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family."
The writer was known for his observations on the decadence and depravity of American life.
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas became a psychedelic classic, telling the story of Thompson's drug-hazed road trip across the western US in search of the American Dream.
Thompson was portrayed on screen by Johnny Depp
The story was eventually made into a movie starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro.
Thompson also wrote the satire Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72.
"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairytale artist," he told Associated Press news agency in 2003.
"You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."
The writer's first ever novel, The Rum Diary, written in 1959, was only published in 1998.
His most recent work was Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and the Downward Spiral of Dumbness, a collection of his columns.
Tricia Louthis, spokeswoman for the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office, said it appeared the writer had committed suicide.
"We do have confirmation that Hunter Thompson was found dead this evening of an apparent self-inflicted wound," she said.
