ASPEN, Colo. — Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictionalized journalism in books such as "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," fatally shot himself last night at his home, his son said. He was 67.

"Hunter prized his privacy and we ask that his friends and admirers respect that privacy as well as that of his family," Juan Thompson said in a statement released to the Aspen Daily News.

A spokeswoman for the Pitkin County sheriff confirmed that Mr. Thompson died at his home of "what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound," The Washington Post reported.

Juan Thompson found his father's body. Mr. Thompson's wife, Anita, was not home at the time.

FRAZER HARRISON / GETTY IMAGES Hunter S. Thompson arrives at a party in Las Vegas in 2003. He wrote the 1972 drug-hazed classic, "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

Besides the 1972 drug-hazed classic about Mr. Thompson's time in Las Vegas, he also wrote "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." The central character in those wild, sprawling satires was "Dr. Thompson," a snarling, drug- and alcohol-crazed observer and participant.

Mr. Thompson is credited with pioneering "gonzo journalism" — a style in which the writer made himself an essential component of the story. Much of his earliest work appeared in Rolling Stone magazine.

"Fiction is based on reality unless you're a fairy-tale artist," Mr. Thompson said in 2003. "You have to get your knowledge of life from somewhere. You have to know the material you're writing about before you alter it."

An acute observer of the decadence and depravity in American life, Mr. Thompson wrote such collections as "Generation of Swine" and "Songs of the Doomed." His first novel, "The Rum Diary," written in 1959, was published in 1998.

Mr. Thompson was a counterculture icon at the height of the Watergate era, and once said President Nixon represented "that dark, venal and incurably violent side of the American character."

Mr. Thompson was the model for Gary Trudeau's balding "Uncle Duke" in the comic strip "Doonesbury," and was portrayed on screen by Johnny Depp in a film adaptation of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."

Other books include "The Great Shark Hunt," "Hell's Angels" and "The Proud Highway." His most recent effort was "Hey Rube: Blood Sport, the Bush Doctrine, and The Downward Spiral of Dumbness."