There are many misconceptions, I’m sure, about the life of Hunter S. Thompson. I’ve always liked his work. Admittedly, I didn’t know who he was until I saw Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. After I saw the movie and started doing some research I found that I really liked the rest of his work and have a Hunter S. Thompson Library that continues to grow.
Last week my roommate and I were browsing through a book store when we came across yet another biography of Thompson. Having just received the one written by his wife, I was a little skeptical. I was even more skeptical after thumbing through and realizing that his wife took no part in the making of the book.
Atherton and I decided not to buy the book under the condition that we would do more research before committing to it. Two days later this was posted on Anita Thompson’s blog.
I’ve always been curious about truth and wanted to find it. I’ve always been curious what it was like to be him and to have his mindset. I want to take the drive from L.A. through Barstow and into Las Vegas. I want to “go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark — that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” I want to know if I have the right kind of eyes.
After seeing this post from Mrs. Thompson today I couldn’t be more happy that I didn’t buy the offending book.
This is a very sad day for me, reading the LA times review of Jann Wenner’s book. The reviewer was too sloppy to understand that Jann never forgave Hunter for leaving Rolling Stone. So, using a cheap parlor trick, Jann excerpted and paraphrased bits of interviews to weave a tall tale to trash Hunter.
Hunter wrote more in the last 5 years of his life than he had in the previous 15, along with fighting and winning a beautiful legal battle for Lisl Auman. Hunter believed in the triumph of the human spirit. John Nichols from the Nation has said, and I agree, that some of Hunter’s most savage and inspiring political writing was in his ESPN columns during the last years of his life.
What the L.A. Times reviewer fails to notice is that in addition to Hunter “using” people around him, the truth is that Hunter was surrounded, much of his life, by leeches (many of who grace the pages of the book). It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize the many people did TAKE, TAKE, TAKE from Hunter and gave very little in return. Hunter helped people, especially Jann, make a lot of money, while sitting at his typewriter. Today is no exception.
Here is the letter that I wrote to Jann, the day that I had to tell him the book was a FRAUD, and that I could not write a forward or include an interview — which was SCARY, because I felt very much alone. Jann is rich and powerful, and I was warned by friends that Jann would try to destroy me if I said “no” to him. He offered me a lot of money and ad space in his magazine to include my interview and forward. In the end, however, the best people to defend Hunter are his readers.
Jann:
In my refrigerator I have a jar of mayonnaise, a two tangerines, 1/2 carton of soy milk and a few boxes of dried spaghetti. And I also have an overdrawn bank account, $43 in my wallet, and no car. So, I really, REALLY could use that money! But I need to let you know that I’m sticking with my original decision I made many months ago – that I can’t be a part of [your book] in any shape or form. I hope you understand. If readers believe that the bits and pieces of interviews you weaved together tell an accurate story, there is nothing I could possibly write in a 500 word forward to sway them. Defending him in a forward would be futile. So, I’m out. And yes, let’s part ways.
Rolling Stone [and especially US Weekly] is such a huge success financially… You have accumulated a mass amount of power and wealth over the last 40 years — Why do you have to use it against Hunter? It would have been so beautiful if you would have used that power to compile, into a book, a bunch of humiliating personal interviews about someone like Paul Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rice, or Rumsfeld or Armitage or Even Bush. Why Hunter? You walked around at both memorial services in a constant state of tears and made people trust you to sit down and do interviews with Corey. I know you and Hunter had some problems over the years… [but] I don’t understand the level of venom employed here. Why?
You couldn’t deny the fact that yes, as soon as he left Rolling Stone, you portray him as an awful beast of a man. But you also couldn’t deny the fact that all these people loved him dearly “all the way to the end”. The reason peopled loved him is because he is one of the rare human beings who is essentially decent, with moments of rotten behavior.
I wish I could appeal to your sense of decency and that you would burn this awful manuscript. It would be the right thing to do. I realize you’re probably laughing at me to even suggest it. Oh Well.
One of my first nights working with Hunter on a project here in the kitchen was in 1999 on the second letters book. I wrote about it in one of the essay portions of my 3 hour Columbia entrance exam. On this night, there were several letters to [and from] you up for consideration…Many people lobbied to include those nasty ones. Hunter humored them for a while. But he wouldn’t run them in the end.
THAT is why “people loved Hunter all the way to the end.” Because no matter how vicious he could be, he was essentially decent in a huge way. And when he did attack people, it was only those who were in a position to defend themselves.
Anyway, I know I’ve pissed you off and it’s probably not the best strategy for me to make an enemy of you. But I love Hunter, and hate to see his friend bash him to pieces… and hope to god that you just go with your heart and reconsider this whole project. If you want to publish embarrassing interviews about me, so be it. I’ve learned to deflect cheap shots. Just lay off Hunter, he’s dead. Won’t you???
Regardless, I wish you some peace and forgiveness in your life.
Sincerely,
Anita
(May 23, 2007)
regarding “oral biography” about Hunter S. Thompson
One last thought for Mrs. Thompson.
I know there is little possibility that you’ll ever read this but if you do I would like to thank you. I want to thank you for telling the truth about Hunter. I want to thank you for being who you are and not giving into the monetary rewards you could have accepted. I want to thank you for standing up for what you know to be right. I also want to thank you for not backing down.
The book you wrote helped me as I know it helped you. I hope you can take comfort in the fact that there is at least one person who won’t give into the hype caused by people who are looking for monetary gain and more popularity than is probably deserved. It those type of people that I fear and loath the most.
Thank you for keeping his true spirit alive.
