Ancient Gonzo Wisdom: Interviews with Hunter S. Thompson

Overview

Bristling with inspired observations and wild anecdotes, this first collection offers a unique insight into the voice and mind of the inimitable Hunter S. Thompson, as recorded in the pages of Playboy, The Paris Review, Esquire, and elsewhere. Fearless and unsparing, the interviews detail some of the most storied episodes of Thompson's life: a savage beating at the hands of the Hells Angels, talking football with Nixon on the 1972 Campaign Trail ("the only time in 20 years of listening to the treacherous bastard that I knew he wasn't lying"), and his unlikely run for sheriff of Aspen. Elsewhere, passionate tirades about journalism, culture, guns, drugs, and the law showcase Thompson's voice at its fiercest. Arranged chronologically, and prefaced with Anita Thompson's moving account of her husband's last years, the interviews present Hunter in all his fractured brilliance and provide an exceptional portrait of his times.

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Author Information

Bio of Anita Thompson

Anita Thompson began working as Hunter's assistant in 1999. In 2000, she moved in and three years later they were married. Today, she is the publisher of The Woody Creeker magazine and is helping to edit Hunter's book Polo Is My Life, among other projects.

Bio of Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Eric Hitchens (born in Portsmouth, England April 13, 1949) is an author, journalist and literary critic. Now living in Washington, D.C., he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair, The Nation and Slate; additionally, he is an occasional contributor to many other publications. Most recently he has appeared regularly in the Wall Street Journal. Hitchens is known for his iconoclasm, anti-clericalism, atheism, antitheism, anti-fascism and anti-monarchism. He is also noted for his acidic wit and his noisy departure from the Anglo-American political left. He was formerly a Trotskyist and a fixture in the left wing publications of Britain and America. But a series of disagreements beginning in the early 1990s led to his resignation from The Nation shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks. While Hitchens's idiosyncratic ideas and positions preclude easy classification, he is a vociferous critic of what he describes as "fascism with an Islamic face," and he is sometimes described as a "neoconservative". Hitchens describes himself as "on the same side as the neo-conservatives",[1] and refers to his "temporary neocon allies". Hitchens no longer considers himself a Trotskyist or even a socialist; yet he maintains that his political views have not changed significantly. He points out that, throughout his career, he has been both an atheist and an antitheist, and that he has always remained a believer in the Enlightenment values of secularism, humanism and reason; he is an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Da Capo Press

Filesize

2.47 MB

Number of Pages

432

eBook ISBN

9780786747986