It might not have the majesty of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, or the viciousness of his attacks on the American dream. But the last written word of Hunter S Thompson, who died last week, has left the literary world intrigued.
According to a sheriff’s report, the author’s body was found in a chair by his kitchen table, on which a typewriter had been placed and a page of writing paper had been lined up with the word ”counselor” (sic) typed at its centre.
A fierce social critic, satirist, and anti-war activist, Thompson (67) killed himself with a shot from a pistol at home in Aspen, Colorado.
The police report describes how his son, Juan Thompson, walked outside the house after discovering the body and fired three shotgun blasts into the air, later saying he had done it to ”mark the passing of his father”.
The significance of the writer’s last word was unclear on Wednesday. It could have been the beginning of a letter addressed to a lawyer (one of the American uses of the word counsellor, along with therapist or adviser), he may have been describing himself, or he might simply have wished to confound those looking for neat explanations for his suicide — an echo of Rosebud, the central character’s last word in the film Citizen Kane.
One possible clue is the paper it was written on — headed stationery of the Fourth Amendment Foundation, an organisation he had just set up to defend privacy rights against the threat of unwarranted search and seizure by the authorities.
In one of his last interviews, Thompson said: ”There has to be some defence against having this government in vain, seize, take over, invade our lives and our personal privacy… every day.” Thompson’s friends said he was in despair over the state of civil liberties and President George Bush’s re-election in November.
His family cancelled plans for a public funeral in favour of a private ceremony, but there are still plans to blast Thompson’s ashes from a cannon, apparently one of his final wishes. – Guardian Unlimited Â