Contact Us Advertising Information Online exclusives Cover Story Buzz Feature In Case You Missed It Vote 2009 Boulderganic Fall 2009 Student Guide 2009 Boulder Weekly Sweet 16 Anniversary Boulderganic 2009 Summer Scene 2009 Email Newsletter Legal Services Best of Boulder 2009 Annual Manual 2009 Newspaper of the Future Kids Camp Guide 2009 Wedding Marketplace 09 Jobs available Student Guide 2008 Best of Boulder 2008 Annual Manual 2008 Join Our Mailing List
|
 December 27-January 2, 2007
buzz@boulderweekly.com
Forever Gonzo
A biographical toast to Hunter S. Thompson
by Ben Corbett
Once replete with freaks and rooted in the counterculture, Boulder has always enjoyed a fetish for the author of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Likewise Hunter S. Thompson was equally fond of Boulder — a city that would occasionally appear in his writing, where some of his allies conspired like sores on the body politic, and where a flock of admirers rallied to the newsstand when the next dispatch from Woody Creek hit the racks. Every dispatch was an event.
After Thompson’s February 2005 suicide, most fans began asking “But who was Thompson — the man — exactly?” A natural question, but only his friends and those who worked closely with him at some point really got past the surface to experience the light and dark forces boiling beneath. These forces that inspired both the writing and the writer are explored through four new books by those who knew Thompson intimately in varying capacities.
Hunter’s wife, Anita, dropped into the author’s life first as a budding football enthusiast, later to become his literary assistant, and eventually his bride. Without her, Hunter was lost, and he was the first to admit it. Taking a Zen/Taoist approach to Thompson’s life, work and mission, she plots out seven lessons in how to live one’s life in her beautifully written The Gonzo Way (Fulcrum, Aug. 2007). Anita came to know Thompson intimately at one of the most crucial stages of his life — as he entered old age — which brought with it much reflection, frustration and a renewed burst of energy directed at both humanity and a resharpening of his talents. Her insights are priceless in that she communicates the ever-changing stimulus that drove Hunter in his last years. While the drugs are touched on, they are seen as a means to an end, with the bigger picture of Thompson’s philosophy captured through her own experience with him. Although she avoids describing the emotional strain involved with being Thompson’s wife, through Anita’s book we get to know a side of Hunter rarely seen — the sometimes tender, always caring, scholarly mind that was ready to learn new things, add them to his collective wisdom and pass them along after being refined through his craft.
Gonzo (AMMO Books, Oct. 2007) is a vibrant photo odyssey that takes the reader through Thompson’s life beginning with his 1950s sportswriter stint at Eglin Air Force Base and ending with the 153-foot cannon that blasted the author’s ashes into the Colorado skies.
Edited by Steve Crist and Laila Nabulsi, besides hundreds of photos of the author interlaced with memorabilia and rough drafts of his writing, the journey includes rare photos shot by Thompson: vintage images of the Hell’s Angels, the ’72 Campaign Trail, and even a shot of Joan Baez butchering a pig in Big Sur. Only partly finished when he died, this project was one of the things that excited Thompson — so much care went into the volume, ensuring it was published the way Hunter would approve. Steve Crist handled Thompson’s last project before he died, the 1000-copy signed, limited edition Taschen release of The Curse of Lono. After leaving Taschen, Crist formed AMMO Books, with Gonzo as its debut release — a 3,000-copy limited edition box set. The October release is the trade version of the collector’s edition — a captivating foray into the life of this complex man.
Too often, standard biographies sway toward the biographer’s own prejudices and romantic notions. Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson (Little, Brown, Oct. 2007), an oral biography, captures Thompson from his childhood until the end of his life through the eyes of 100 of those closest to him. Slightly polished, sometimes brutally honest, the book mirrors Rolling Stone’s March 2005 HST tribute issue with testimonials from people who knew Thompson’s angels and demons. Edited by Jann Wenner and Corey Seymour, Gonzo gives us Thompson in a verbal journey through high school friends and past lovers, his first wife Sandra and son Juan, literary luminaries, former assistants, the list is enormous. Doug Brinkley’s insights are true gems in that he analyzes Hunter more thoroughly than any other writer has in the past — and analysis is what makes this book a testament rather than a mere collection of reminiscences.
If you thought Thompson’s writing was outrageous, brace yourself for his day-to-day existence. Co-authored by Woody Creek artist Michael Cleverly and Sheriff Bob Braudis, The Kitchen Readings (Harper Perennial, Feb. 2008), brings the reader straight into the Hotel Jerome, the Woody Creek Tavern and Thompson’s infamous kitchen for some of the kinkiest, wildest, sometimes hair-raising events that studded the author’s already adventurous life. Through their own experiences and retelling stories by the likes of documentary filmmaker Wayne Ewing and former assistant Deborah Fuller, Cleverly and Braudis undermine the Hollywood image often associated with Thompson and in its place give us the real Hunter. From exploding acetylene-filled inner tubes to Hunter’s legendary shotgun art, pornography to poignant, private moments at home, the book offers a fearlessly honest glance at Thompson’s playful side, his cranky side, his everyday side, his vulnerable side and his last days on earth — through two of his best friends.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Back to Top |
| |
