Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Categories: 1947 births | American journalists | American writers | People from Ohio | American humorists
P. J. O'Rourke
Patrick Jake O'Rourke (born November 14, 1947) is an American political satirist, journalist, and writer. Born in Toledo, Ohio, he was educated at Miami University (Ohio) and Johns Hopkins University.
He confesses that during his student days he was a left-leaning hippie, who in the 1970s underwent a damascene conversion. He emerged as a political observer and humorist with definite libertarian, sometimes conservative, and decidedly anti-liberal viewpoints.
O'Rourke wrote articles for several publications before joining National Lampoon in 1973, where he served as managing editor among other roles. Going freelance in 1981, O'Rourke's pieces appeared in magazines such as Playboy, Vanity Fair, Car and Driver, and Rolling Stone. He later became the foreign-affairs desk chief at Rolling Stone, where he remained until 2001.
An early proponent of gonzo journalism, O'Rourke's nascent master-work in the genre was a National Lampoon article, appearing in March of 1979, "How to Drive Fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing-Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink." The article later appeared in his first book, Republican Party Reptile (1987), which became a bestseller. As the book's title implies, O'Rourke espoused economic and geopolitical views that were notably right-wing (rare among comedic writers of the day), yet his views on sex and drugs remained uncomfortably liberal for many of his conservative fellows.
O'Rourke can best be described as a libertarian (and has, in fact, sarcastically proposed two other American political parties: one to cater for those with his peculiar mixture of views, and another for those who hold the opposite mixture).
His other books are The Bachelor Home Companion (1987), Holidays in Hell (1988), Modern Manners (1990), Parliament of Whores (1991), Give War a Chance (1992), All the Trouble in the World (1994), Age and Guile Beat Youth, Innocence, and a Bad Haircut (1995), The American Spectator's Enemies List (1996), Eat the Rich (1999), The CEO of the Sofa (2001), and Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism (2004) ISBN 0871139197.
Currently O'Rourke is the H. L. Mencken Research Fellow of the Cato Institute and is a regular correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and occasionally appears on National Public Radio's radio game show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.
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