Thrown Under the Omnibus: A Reader

P. J. O'Rourke has had a prolific career as one of America's most celebrated humorists. But that career almost didn't happen. As he explains it, "I began to write for pay in the spring of 1970. To tell the truth I didn't even want to be a writer, I meant to be a race car driver, but I didn't have a race car."

Fortunately for us, he had to settle for writing. From his early pieces for the National Lampoon, through his classic reporting as Rolling Stone's International Affairs editor in the '8...