A Gonzo Anniversary

Five years ago today, Hunter S. Thompson put a pistol to his head and blew his brains out. I was, and remain, a Hunter Thompson fan. I have, and have read, all his books, plus others about him.

I never met him. But I met someone who did, not so long ago. Senator George McGovern was in Dickinson a few years ago, and I got invited to have breakfast with him and some other western North Dakota Democrats. McGovern and Thompson were well-acquainted, of course through Hunter’s coverage of the 1972 presidential campaign, chronicled in his book “Fear and Loathing On The Campaign Trail ’72.”

After the book was published, Thompson sent McGovern an inscribed copy, of course, and McGovern wrote a letter thanking him for the book. The letter was reprinted in Doug Brinkley’s second volume of Hunter’s letters, published in 2000, “Fear and Loathing in America.”

So I took the Brinkley book along to breakfast with Senator McGovern, and had him autograph it just below his letter, on page 558. McGovern got a big kick out of it, and said kind words about Hunter.

In fact, McGovern, just a few months earlier, had written a tribute to Thompson in which he pointed out that one of the photos in Thompson’s book was of himself and Thompson with the spoof caption “Pictured above is George McGovern urging Dr. Hunter S. Thompson to accept the vice presidential nomination.”

McGovern wrote in his tribute, published just days after Thompson’s death, in the Los Angeles Times (and headlined “Gonzo But Not Forgotten”) “In retrospect, I wish I had. Perhaps then Hunter and I might both still be alive and well instead of dead and wounded, respectively.”

Five years ago today, Hunter Thomson left this note beside his typewriter:

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.

And pulled the trigger.

Hunter once wrote “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone . . . but they’ve always worked for me.”

Lift a glass for Hunter S. Thompson tonight. He made our world a little more bearable.