[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Gonzo"

[Ben Zimmer]

Thanks for bringing Wills's fascinating essay to our attention, Fred. Wills
also mentions (but does not explicitly cite) a slightly later example of
adjectival "gonzo" used in print by Charles Giuliano on July 3, 1970.
(Giuliano had issued a challenge to antedate that, which Wills successfully
accomplished.) Here's the Giuliano cite:

---
Boston Herald Traveler, July 3, 1970
Some 25,000 gonzo fans jammed the bowl end of Harvard Stadium, Wednesday,
July 1 to hear their sex-rock idols, Ten Years After. The Schaefer Festival
foams on with top rock.
---

I don't see an online archive covering the Herald (Traveler) from 1970, but
the quote appears in the publisher's description of Giuliano's 2015 memoir
_Shards of a Life_, as well as in an announcement from the publisher about
the book launch:

https://www.amazon.com/Shards-Life-Charles-Giuliano/dp/0996171509/
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Shards_of_a_Life/6mfesgEACAAJ
https://berkshirefinearts.com/05-27-2015_charles-giuliano-at-the-mount-on-june-5.htm

In any case, this second-earliest cite further supports Fred's point that
OED's sense 2 should be given historical priority.

--bgz

On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 9:04 AM Shapiro, Fred <
00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for Hunter S. Thompson's famous
> adjective "gonzo."  The OED has two senses for the term.  Sense 1 is a
> genre of journalism.  Sense 2 is a general meaning "bizarre, crazy;
> far-fetched."  The earliest citation for sense 1 is dated November 11,
> 1971; the earliest citation for sense 2 is dated 1974.  In 2022 I found
> sense 1 ("gonzo journalism") in a letter by Thompson dated April 20, 1971.
>
> Here is an earlier citation for the general sense 2, which now must be
> regarded as the original sense:
>
> 1970 Boston Globe 14 June D19/1 (ProQuest)  For five years Alpert [Richard
> Alpert, known as Baba Ram Dass] attempted to sustain the level of
> enlightenment he had encountered that snowy night in Newton.  He tried
> every chemical he was handed.  He took over 300 LSD trips.  He smoked pot
> and went Gonzo on STP, the most powerful hallucinogen ever concocted.
>
> This citation occurs in an article by Robert Taylor.  On first glance it
> might seem that Taylor's use is only one of many pre-1971 coincidental
> occurrences of "gonzo" in meanings having nothing to do with Hunter S.
> Thompson, such as names of persons.  However, Taylor's article appeared in
> the Boston Globe magazine edited by Bill Cardoso, a close friend of
> Thompson's.  Cardoso presumably was familiar with the article.  Thompson
> repeatedly stated that he got the word "gonzo" from Cardoso.
>
> The discovery of the 1970 citation was not made by me.  I found it
> discussed in a 2025 essay by David S. Wills.  Wills's essay is an
> exceptionally detailed analysis of the origins of "gonzo."  It may be found
> at beatdom.substack.com/uncovering-the-origins-of-gonzo-on.
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>

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