Hunter S. Thompson’s widow will get a chance to do something the godfather of gonzo journalism never did: graduate from Columbia University.
Anita Thompson, 33, learned Friday that she had been accepted at the school, where her husband studied creative writing more than 50 years ago. She plans to earn her bachelor’s degree in English.
“I’m thrilled. I have Hunter to thank for getting me accepted and hooking me up with the kinds of people who wrote me letters of recommendation,” she told the Aspen Daily News.
Thompson said she received written endorsements from former Sen. George McGovern, whose Democratic presidential candidacy was chronicled in Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail ’72”; historian Douglas Brinkley; and Playboy Editor-at-Large Robert Love, among others.
Thompson studied at Colorado State University in her hometown of Fort Collins and has taken courses at UCLA. She estimates that she has 18 months of college left to complete.
She plans to commute to New York for classes and continue publishing The Woody Creeker, an eclectic magazine devoted to Thompson and the community he dubbed his “psychic anchor.”
Thompson shot and killed himself at his Woody Creek home on Feb. 20, 2005, following health problems. He was 67.