ANITA THOMPSON (HUNTER THOMPSON'S WIDOW): THE GONZO WAY; 8/6/07 THE BOOKSMITH, HAIGHT-ASHBURY, SAN FRANCISCO

Anita Thompson, author of The Gonzo Way: A Celebration of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (Fulcom, 2007). Booksmith 8/6/07. Everybody has their own Hunter Thompson story be it when they read one of his books or perhaps when they saw Hunter in person. I saw him at the Booksmith in the Haight-Ashbury in 1997 with actor Johnny Depp. Hundreds of fans formed a line around the block. Anita Thompson, his widow, has stories to tell about an American original who is part visionary, part revolutionary, part literary genius who was able to hold such a grip on our imaginations. The reason she wrote the book was geared to the response she received from thousands of young people who felt lost after Hunter died. She has 5 years of intense experience. One thing that worried her after Hunter's death was this misconception that Hunter's genius came from his lifestyle -- drinking Wild Turkey and taking a bottle of Dexedrine tablets must be the ticket to ride. If I took all these substances, the thinking went, I could write like Hunter. He discouraged people from acting like him. He was a big advocate of being an individual, of being yourself. Last book they collaborated on was Dr. Thompson's guide to physical fitness.

Anita read the chapter on Buy the Ticket, Take the Ride. Here is a portion of the Q and A.

Q:This may be a little painful for you but you were on the phone with Hunter when he shot himself. What were his last words - if you can tell us?
A: I was indeed on the phone when he did it and to some that seems like an act of cruelty but actually he was very loving and Hunter had been planning this for quite awhile as I know now. The discussion we had a year before that was about different sects of Buddhism. He was not a Buddhist by any means but one philosophy is that you decide when you're going to die. You think in your mind how you'd like to die, who you'd like to with die, etc. What you would like to wear, every decision is made from what shoes you put on that day to what you put into your body -- will that bring you closer or take you away from that? And we discussed that and he wanted me to be there with him and the circumstances were such that I was on the phone with him. His last words were very sweet. They weren't cruse -- just the opposite. It was in his mind an act of love.
Q: Do you feel that the public's mythologizing of Hunter's lifestyle is accurate?
A: Yes! He never encouraged it in anyone else. He did have a unique ability to -- he had a strange and unusual constitution both mentally and physically. Not only could he ingest more physical substances than other people but also he could absorb more information than other people I know. He read several newspapers and a stack of magazines every day. Some people called is a disorder but he constantly needed input. It was a flow of substances and food, too. It just kept coming.