hunter entire book with new forward and epilogue

“HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD 20 YEARS AGO!” —HST’s private physician “Uproarious fun . . . E. Jean Carroll’s wacko-wanton biography is the only way to throw a net over the cavorting career of Doctor Thompson . . . Carroll . . . out-gonzos the master.” —Albuquerque Journal “Crisply edited reminiscences of his friends. . . .” —Entertainment Weekly “Carroll’s approach is novel . . . it’s gonzo biography.” —Indianapolis Star “A hilarious version of Sade’s Justine . . . Echoes her wild subject well, while framing some serious interviews with drug dealers, politicians, childhood friends and, notably, Thompson’s ex-wife.” —San Francisco Chronicle “Her style is as outrageously entertaining as Dr. Gonzo himself. . . .” —Denver Post “Carroll’s interviewees—including Thompson’s brother, mother, ex-girlfriend, ex-wife, colleagues, even George McGovern— offer many interesting observations on her subject’s alienated youth, writing style, celebrityhood, behavior and journalistic influence.” —Publishers Weekly

“FOR A LESSON IN DECADENCE, ALL BEGINNING WRITERS SHOULD READ . . . Hunter: The Strange and Savage Life of Hunter S. Thompson, written by his friend (and hot-tub companion) E. Jean Carroll.” —Bazaar “Author E. Jean Carroll tracked down Thompson’s friends, relatives, and enemies, and got them to talk about the mad doctor. . . . Though hilariously funny, this book has substance. Fans of Hunter S. Thompson will find Carroll’s biography indispensable.” —Arlington Old Town Crier “A highly imaginative biography that is a smooth, fast-paced look at an American icon. So read the damn thing. It’s worth it.” —Idaho State University Bengal “Extremely well-researched and loaded with media gossip.” —Express Books “For Thompson’s fans . . . nothing is going to top E. Jean Carroll’s Hunter . . . excellent . . . flashy and well-sustained.” —Rocky Mountain News “Hunter ought to contend for every non-fiction writing award given. . . .” —Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“A FAST AND FUNNY READ . . . NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.” —Seattle Times “Terrifying and hilarious . . . It has to rank as one of the most readable biographies yet done on anyone. . . . A Renoir meets Dali meets Tom Robbins.” —Louisville Eccentric Observer “She shows his life as one long prowl for drugs, women, booze, and fame . . . Thompson is a full-blown lunatic from the first chapter to the last.” —St. Louis Riverfront Times “Outrageous! Call the authorities. This sort of book can only lead to a general undermining of the whole time-hallowed majesty of biography . . . and ipso facto, our American civilization.” —Albuquerque Sunday Observer “Hunter is to other biographies what the Harlem Globetrotters are to Athletes for Christ.” —Tom Robbins

The Strange and Savage Life of

Hunter S. Thompson

Published by 1500 Books

Warwick, New York Copyright © E. Jean Carroll, 1993 New Stuff © E. Jean Carroll, 2010 All rights reserved. This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition plus some spanking new material by the author. PUBLISHING HISTORY

Dutton edition, 1993 Plume paperbound edition, 1993 A portion appeared in Esquire Magazine, 1993 1500 Books revised edition, 2010 ISBN: 978-1-933698-36-6 ebook ISBN: 978-1-933698-37-3 First Printing

C O N T E N T S

Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Hunter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Selected Annotated Bibliography of works by and about Hunter S. Thompson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283 Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343 Author’s Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 345 Author’s Postscript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347

F O R E W O R D

Back in the 20th Century, people were frightened of Hunter’s book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. They worried about his iconic status and his journalism’s “effect” on “youth.” I don’t see any effect. Do you? When was the last time you saw a “youth” do anything more iconoclastic than defriend someone unattractive on Facebook? Right. Generation Y needs some pointers on tapping into their Inner Hunter. So does Generation X, for that matter, and, let’s not forget my own decrepit generation. So here you go, you dullards! You panty-waists! Turn off your iPhones and reach down deep. It’s time to start living!

7 Ways to Tap Into Your Inner Hunter 1. DRUGS. Get Off Your Ritalin and Adderall. The whole point of life is to enjoy your Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. 2. WARDROBE. You Need a Hat. Accessorize with a vicious Doberman, a clove cigarette in a holder, tinted aviators, tennis shorts-in-the-dead-of-winter and a woman’s wig with blonde limpy curls. 3. WHISKEY. Never Drink at Work. Leave work to get drunk. 4. SEX. Pretend to Listen to Women Very Closely. It turns them to mush faster than looks, money, or fame. 5. FOOD. Breakfast Is Sacred. Eat it alone, and never before 3:00 p.m. It should consist of two grapefruits (the secret of longevity!), six cups of coffee, two tall glasses orange juice, scrambled eggs with hot sauce, cheese and chilies, four rashers of bacon, refried beans, hot-buttered toast, two or three

xii

E. Jean Carroll

wedges of key lime pie, a couple of margaritas, all the papers, ESPN, and a half-a-grinder of cocaine. 6. TALK. Mumble so no one can understand you. If they cannot understand you, you can ignore them. 7. DEATH. Don’t be concerned whether your books will “live on”—they will die—the trick is for you to live on. Of course, Hunter shot himself on February 20th, 2005, so there were times when not even he could tap into his inner Hunter. Because of health problems he could no longer walk, throw bombs in the Woody Creek Tavern, or swim. The note he left read: No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun—for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax—This won’t hurt. So. You are about to read the new edition of Laetitia Snap’s famous biography of Hunter S. Thompson. Miss Tishy, though an intelligent person and a celebrated ornithologist, has approximately 1/79th the writing talent of young Doctor Thompson. We are faced with the old conundrum: Great writers deserve great biographies; but the person has not yet been born with the skills to write about Hunter. P.S. Miss Tishy has written an epilogue (see page 343). As you’ve no doubt heard, her assertion that Hunter Thompson is still alive and living in the Punjab is causing a storm in the blogosphere. Ignore it.

E. Jean Carroll

Hunter

xiii

E P I L O G U E

Handsome Reader! Forsooth! It is I, Tishy. After the Doctor supposedly “died” of a “self-inflicted gunshot wound” to the head, but before the film actor, Johnny Depp, created a diversion by rocketing the Doctor’s “ashes” into the sky atop a 153-foot tower in the shape of a fist clutching a peyote button—and here permit me to pause and ask why the noble, most agreeable, most beautiful Mr. Depp would pay $1,200,000 to shoot an old button into the air as a cover story? It is a mystery to your Tishy, Reader! I say, before Mr. Depp perpetrated this deceitful “memorial” and forced me against my will to attend the “festivities” where I was compelled to sit between those two wicked men, Jack Nicholson and Bill Murray, both of whom abandoned themselves to infamies against my thighs, before that I say, the Doctor—who did accidentally shoot himself—the Doctor and I secretly ran away to the Punjab. It was there, in Pakistan, in a secret Valley of the Punjab that I found the highly-potent bile of the Pavo cristatus (Indian Peafowl), which, after repeated applications to the Doctor’s wound, restored the Doctor’s brain to 87% of its original. A side effect—a miracle!—the Doctor is now growing a full head of hair, each strand as thick as his black plastic cigarette holder! Oh! What a man! Great God!

A U T H O R’S

NOTE

Miss Maura Wogan, the publisher’s lawyer and partner in the august firm of Frankfurt, Garbus, Klein and Selz, has threatened to flog me with a bull’s pizzle if I do not state that Laetitia Snap is a fictitious character and that some of the incidents Snap said happened, did not. E. Jean Carroll

A U T H O R’S

POSTSCRIPT

Oh, indeed? Laetitia Snap, Ph.D

You’ll enjoy these other memoirs from

The Private Life of Marie Antoinette by Madame Campan

An intimate account of the intrigue and drama at the royal court from the queen’s lady-in-waiting.

A New Voyage Round the World by William Dampier

Explorer, naturalist, and pirate William Dampier provides one of the earliest and most eloquent accounts of discovery and piracy on the high seas.

The Impenetrable Forest by Thor Hanson

A Peace Corps volunteer goes to Uganda to observe and habituate the endangered mountain gorilla. Winner of the USA Book News Award.

Foreign Devil by Richard Hughes

Inspiration for Ian Fleming and John LeCarré, the memoirs of a Far East reporter during the tumultuous 1940s and ’50s.

Thirty Years a Detective by Allan Pinkerton

From the founder of the Pinkerton agency, an insider’s look at criminals, their mindsets, and their most famous schemes.

Memoirs of Duc de Saint-Simon

Sex and politics meet head on in this often hilarious tell-all brimming with gossip from the royal court of The Sun King, Louix XIV. “Saint-Simon is one of the most vivid—and witty—writers from history.” —Antonia Fraser “. . . the rich sensation of being back at Versailles. . .” —New York Review of Books

More from 1500 Books The No Good Dirty Rotten Low Down Book of Love

A funny and irreverent book of quotes about love featuring an introduction by E. Jean Carroll.

The Dukays by Lajos Zilahy

Hungary’s foremost novelist tells the story of the momentous changes in Europe after WWI through the eyes of an aging aristocrat and his children. For excerpts to these and other books please visit 1500Books.com