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that Thompson was not on drugs when he sat down to
write Vegas. In a letter to his Random House editor Jim
Silberman, who stated that he did not think Thompson
was on drugs, Thompson casually admits to being sober,
but asks Silberman to hold his piece on the matter
because the people at Rolling Stone (where Vegas was
first published) were absolutely convinced that he had
engaged in “a ranking freakout.”
A couple of years later Thompson feels quite differently
about the image he put out there in Vegas,
complaining bitterly when he is misquoted in Esquire
as saying that “at least” 45 percent of what he writes
is true, and becoming incensed when Gary Trudeau
debuts his ‘Uncle Duke’ character in Doonesbury.
Reading this collection, one can’t help but get the
impression that Thompson was feeling pressure to
keep up an act that no one could follow, and that the
publication of his letters is a way to once and for
all to answer any questions anyone might still have
about the ‘real’ Hunter S. Thompson so that he can
live out the rest of his life free from the compulsion
to do himself in a suitably dramatic manner. �
BUY Hunter S. Thompson books online from and
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