P.J. P.J. He was 74.
O’Rourke’s vice president and spokeswoman, Deb Seager, was confirmed by Grove Atlantic in a statement.
She said that P. J. O’Rourke, a dear friend and beloved Grove Atlantic author, died this morning due to complications from lung cancer.
He was noted by her: “A journalist, political satirist and journalist, O’Rourke authored over twenty books on topics as diverse as politics and cars. These included his two #1 New York Times Bestsellers, ‘Parliament of Whores’ and ‘Give War A Chance.
Morgan Entrekin, Grove Atlantic CEO and Publisher, stated, “P. J. was one the most prominent voices of his generation.
Ohio-born writer. He was educated at Miami University in Miami and as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Johns Hopkins in Maryland. After working at small newspapers in Baltimore, New York, and Baltimore, he became known for his work in the 1970s as editor-in chief of the National Lampoon.
He was a counterculture-wary hellraiser, inspired by Hunter S. Thompson (whom he called a friend” and “the greatest writer of the 20th century.”
He said, in an oral history of Thompson, “I came to Hunter quite late.” “[Tom] Wolfe was my first New Journalist to read. It was ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Its writing was something I loved, but it was inaccurate for me as a hippie. … …
O’Rourke was a well-known drinker and was often quoted saying that “no drug, not even alcohol causes the fundamental ills in society.” If we want to find the root cause of our problems, we shouldn’t test people for drugs. We should instead test them for stupidity.
After working for Rolling Stone and Atlantic Monthly, he would then contribute to Automobile Magazine, Esquire and Vanity Fair’s pages, as well as the pages of the Daily Beast and Weekly Standard.
O’Rourke was a Hollywood actor, writing the script for Rodney Dangerfield’s movie “Easy Money” as well as appearing on HBO’s series “True Blood.”
O’Rourke wrote in 1991, “Parliament of Whores,” that modern politics was a detestable subject. “The Democrats are the party which says government will make your smarter, taller and richer, and take out the crabgrass from your lawn. Republicans are the party that claims government doesn’t work and is then elected to prove it. “
He stated that he was a libertarian, and his work often defied any leftward tilt of his generation. This is a reflection of the growing conservatism among some of the aging baby boomers.
He was skeptical about the Obama presidency, calling it ” The Carter administration in better sweaters” and sympathizing with the anti-government Tea Party movement in the early 2010s.
He said that fiscal conservatism was a way to express something that is more difficult: that the size of government and the scope of politics in our lives has grown unwieldy and intrusive.
The Guardian had called O’Rourke “the rightwinger it’s OK to like for lefties,” in a 2010 interview. But O’Rourke would continue to criticize President Donald Trump and refused to accept easy categorization.
In 2016, he declared that he would vote for Hillary Clinton and in a 2020 interview , referred to Trump as “unstable”.
The Los Angeles Times described him as “button-down, gonzo,” in a feature about his physical appearance that called him “Dan Quayle with bad hangover”.
O’Rourke was the grandson of Ohio Buick dealers. He was also a certified car enthusiast. O’Rourke often used his writing and reporting skills to reach top auto publications.
O’Rourke, in his 2009 book “Driving Like Crazy”, described America’s impact on the automobile.
He wrote, “Cars let me out of the barn while they were at the same time, destroyed the American nucleus family.” “This was a relief for all involved, as anyone who has been a part of an American nuclear family will tell you. “
O’Rourke was also a regular guest on MSNBC. He even made a scathing comment about Trump’s administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico 2017.
He said, “You just stand there and lie — ‘We did an excellent job’.” “We did an awful job.”
He was also the H.L. Mencken Research Fellow at Cato Institute, and regular panelist on NPR’s “Wait Wait.” . . Please Don’t Tell me.”
Tina O’Rourke and their three children are his survivors.
