Eva Morris will present a talk Sunday, April 24, in Searsmont, about Hunter S. Thompson, and the interview she conducted with him in 2004.

 

Hunter Thompson wrote for the New York Herald Tribune, National Observer, The Reporter, The Nation, Spyder (the voice of the Free speech movement at Berkely) and Playboy magazine. The Rum Diary was written first but Hells Angels brought him to the attention of the New York Times Book Review in 1967.

 

In 1969, Scanlon's Monthly commissioned Thompson to write one of his most popular short stories "The Kentucky Derby is Decadent and Depraved."

 

In 1971, Rolling Stone magazine published Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in two issues. It was then published in book form by Simon & Schuster and was later adapted for film. Many other pieces followed. Thompson lived at Owls Farm, a fortified compound outside Aspen, Colorado. He continued to publish essays and was a sports-writer for ESPN.com

 

Eva Morris is the author of a series of road trip adventures in a genre Hunter called Fiction/Non fiction reality.  

 

After three self-published compilations Grove press founder and Evergreen review editor-in-Chief Barney Rosset compiled a full anthology of all her short stories in 2000's 'RoadBabe!'

 

Her short stories were also compiled in a Simon & Schuster "Best of 2000" collection. She recently finished a novel, 'Adventures of RoadBabe' from which "Ode to Hunter S. Thompson" is excerpted. 

 

In 2004, Hunter Thompson, liking what Eva Morris had written over the previous five years, called her one evening at 3 a.m., said Morris, in a news release.

 

He'd long subscribed to 'Blond Updates from the Open Road' and now wanted to hire her to interview him, pay $2,000. A year later this interview became his last when he committed suicide the following February 2005, said Morris.

 

Hunter Thompson was more than just the longtime author of books, articles and essays. He provoked decades of readers, influenced many generations of writers, led movements and has created change. Hunter Thompson always was and still is much much larger than life. Fans will enjoy this hommage to his many contributions to our literary culture.