nothing beats good references

Get a look at one of Hunter Thompson’s letters requesting a job. The year was 1958. Seattle Weekly says it’s the greatest cover letter ever written.

Hint:

“I didn’t make myself clear to the last man I worked for until after I took the job. It was as if the Marquis de Sade had suddenly found himself working for Billy Graham.

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s a damned shame that a field as potentially dynamic and vital as journalism should be overrun with dullards, bums, and hacks, hag-ridden with myopia, apathy, and complacence, and generally stuck in a bog of stagnant mediocrity.

“Most of my experience has been in sports writing, but I can write everything from warmongering propaganda to learned book reviews.

“I can work 25 hours a day if necessary, live on any reasonable salary, and don’t give a black damn for job security, office politics, or adverse public relations.

“I would rather be on the dole than work for a paper I was ashamed of.”