Even before he was famous, but with increasing vigor after his literary success, Hunter Thompson approached interviews as part performance, part verbal game of tag.

Like Bob Dylan at his most mischievous, Thompson may have seemed to treat Q&As like a lark, but he used them to promote an image of himself, increasingly that of a crazed, politically obsessed Yosemite Sam behind a typewriter.

That persona is on full display in "Ancient Gonzo Wisdom," a career-spanning collection of interviews, transcripts and profiles. The book charts Thompson's history -- from the early days of "Hell's Angels" through the watershed of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," across his steady creative decline and, posthumously, beyond his suicide a few years back.

"Ancient" includes about 50 pieces, including a 1974 Playboy magazine interview conducted at the height of his streak; a transcript of a jagged talk he gave in Richmond in 1978; and a 2000 Paris Review piece that's arguably the most serious, worthwhile discussion in the book. Although the best biographical portraits of Thompson probably came in his collected letters, published in 1998 and 2000, "Ancient" is a solid overview.

Politics, writing, drugs, sex, money and firearms are the dominant topics, but the issue of image comes up again and again as well. There's a recurring sense through the various conversations that Thompson's persona and lifestyle became a prison of sorts, and wrought for him a constant challenge to raise the bar of his outrageousness while at the same time interfering with his talent.

"In a rough use of the word, I became a public figure," he told David Felton in 1978, in one of the book's better pieces. "Somehow the author has become larger than the writing. And it sucks."