Woody Creek – Hunter S. Thompson’s widow will co-edit a magazine titled The Woody Creeker, which is expected to hit the newsstands nearly a year after the gonzo journalist committed suicide.
“We have some good writers already,” Anita Thompson told the Aspen Times in today’s edition. Thompson said satirist and political commentator P.J. O’Rourke plans a profile of her husband, based on interviews in 1987 and 1997.
Besides Anita Thompson, other contributors who will attempt to capture the character of the area include George Stranahan, one of the founders of the Flying Dog Brewery; Woody Creek mayor Gaylord Guenin; musician Jimmy Ibbotson of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band; and “poetry editor” “Tex” Weaver, a local carpenter best known for his near-continuous use of expletives.
The first press run in February is to be 1,000 copies, Stranahan said.
Anita Thompson, 32, said the magazine would not be a full-time job for her. She continues her work on a book she calls “Hunters Wisdom,” a collection of witticisms, aphorisms and other expressions from Hunter S. Thompson’s bibliography of 14 books, along with her personal notes.
On the magazine, Thompson said she came up with the idea mainly as a way to celebrate the oddities and richness of her neighborhood.
“We’re living the Woody Creek lifestyle,” she said. “We should be recording it, at least.” Hunter S. Thompson shot himself in his kitchen Feb. 20, apparently despondent over health problems. In August, Thompson’s ashes where shot out of a 15-story cannon during an elaborate memorial service.
Actor Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in the 1998 movie adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” paid the $2.6 million cost of the memorial.
