Damariscotta author and journalist Brian Kevin recently captured an award for the best nonfiction book by a Maine author in 2014 with his debut effort.
Kevin’s “The Footloose American: Following the Hunter S. Thompson Trail Across South America” received the Book Award for Nonfiction during the Maine Literary Awards ceremony at Space Gallery in Portland May 28.
The book chronicles Kevin’s exploits as he traces Thompson’s 1962-1963 journey across the continent as an unknown and virtually penniless freelance reporter and photographer.
Thompson would later rise to fame as the “gonzo” journalist behind the semifictional “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and other works about 1960s and 1970s culture and politics, like “Hell’s Angels” and “Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72.”
Thompson would become equally famous for his lifestyle, including a prodigious appetite for alcohol and drugs.
Years before “Fear and Loathing,” however, Thompson was a 24-year-old freelance journalist hitching a ride from Aruba to Columbia’s Guajira peninsula on board a smugglers’ boat.
Kevin’s book borrows its title from Thompson’s first article of the journey: “A Footloose American in a Smugglers’ Den.”
Kevin’s idea for the book has its roots in his admiration for Thompson’s writing. In the book, he describes his introduction to Thompson while a college student in Wisconsin via the 1998 film adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” starring Johnny Depp.
Shortly thereafter, he read “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” cover to cover one afternoon.
“From the get-go, Thompson’s writing style got its hooks in me – his sense of humor, his exaggerated descriptions, the raw confessional tone with which he describes a fragmenting American society,” Kevin writes in the first chapter of his book.
Later, Kevin read “The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967,” a collection of Thompson’s early correspondence that contains several letters from South America.
At the time, Kevin was roughly the same age Thompson had been during his journey and the letters contained a strong appeal for the recent college graduate.
“I remember thinking … that’s the globe-trotting, adventurous, daredevil life I’m going to lead,” Kevin said.
Instead, he “blinked” and a half-dozen years had passed. He was 29, recently divorced, and saddled with student debt after finishing a graduate degree.
The idea for the book had been in the back of his mind all along.
Thompson’s journey across South America was an “underexplored” part of his life, “but it seemed to me like this had to be a pretty integral year in forming the fantastic writer that came later and the kind of bombastic personality that came later,” Kevin said.
Thompson appeared to have come to some “profound realizations” and a new understanding of America and its role in the world during his time abroad, Kevin said.
“I want those realizations,” Kevin remembers thinking. “How did I get to be 29 and I haven’t had any of them yet?”
He embarked on the first leg of the trip in 2009, returning to South America twice for a total of about six months on the continent from 2009-2012.
As Kevin acknowledges, his book uses Thompson more as an entry point than a focal point. The book offers insight into the culture, geography, history, and politics of South America, as well as U.S. policy on the continent.
Kevin describes “The Footloose American” as “a wonky travel book with elements of biography.”
“I’d like to think the book appeals to anybody who has asked themselves, ‘How does travel change a person?'” Kevin said. “And if you happen to be a little bit of a nerd for Cold War politics, so much the better. If you happen to be a fan of Hunter S. Thompson, so much the better.”
“The Footloose American” was released May 20, 2014. The book received positive reviews from The New York Times and Esquire, among others.
Thompson’s widow, Anita Thompson, praised the book, as did the prolific author and historian Douglas Brinkley, editor of “The Proud Highway” and the literary executor of Thompson’s estate.
The most recent recognition for the book came at the Maine Literary Awards.
“It was a really nice honor,” Kevin said. For Kevin, a gratifying part of the awards ceremony was being in the company of Maine authors he admires, including his competition.
The other nominees for the nonfiction award were “Caffeinated: How Our Daily Habit Helps, Hurts, and Hooks Us” by Murray Carpenter and “Superstorm: Nine Days Inside Hurricane Sandy” by Kathryn Miles.
Kevin, 34, hails from Oshkosh, Wis. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from the University of Montana.
He lived in Minnesota, Montana, and Oregon before moving to Maine in 2010. His wife, Elsa Kevin, is from Cape Elizabeth. After a few months in the state, she took a position at Rising Tide Community Market in Damariscotta.
The couple soon settled in Damariscotta, where they live with their 1-year-old son, Otis.
Kevin now works as an associate editor at Down East magazine in Rockport, where his true-crime saga “The Belfast Operation” – a bloody tale about a cocaine ring in the rural Midcoast of the 1980s and an undercover law enforcement operation to bring it down – attracted attention from the film and television industry.
A major studio eventually purchased a renewable one-year option from Down East, although Kevin does not necessarily expect to see his name on the big screen, citing a statistic that 90-95 percent of options never become movies.
Kevin is not currently working on a second book. After a long work week at the magazine, freelance work on nights and weekends, and fatherhood, “there’s not a lot of time left over,” he said.
He does, however, hope to prepare a proposal for a second book by the end of the year. “I have ideas,” he said.
