One of the last notes written by Hunter S. Thompson before he committed suicide in February has been published in Rolling Stone magazine.

Scrawled in black felt-tip, five days before Thompson shot himself, the short letter was addressed to Anita, his wife, but it reads as a suicide note in which the author of Fear of Loathing in Las Vegas berates his age and searches for the nerve to kill himself.

Entitled Football Season Is Over, to mark the passing of the American football season, which Thompson avidly followed, the note ran: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun -- for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax -- This won't hurt."

According to Thompson's friends and official biographer, Douglas Brinkley, who wrote about the letter in today's edition of Rolling Stone, Thompson talked frankly about suicide in the weeks leading up to his death.

"'This child's getting old,' he muttered with stark regularity, an old-timey refrain that mountainmen used to utter when their trailblazing days were over," wrote Brinkley today.

"Depressed and in physical pain from hip-replacement surgery, he started talking openly about suicide, polishing his .45-calibre pistol, his weapon of choice."

Thompson was found dead at his kitchen table on the evening of February 21, with a pistol at his feet. Police arriving at the scene were greeted by Juan, the journalist's son, who was firing a shotgun into the air to mark his father's passing.

Admirers of the writer, who developed a brand new voice in American journalism in the 1960s and 1970s with long articles about the Hell's Angels and politicians on campaign, were left bemused by a piece of paper found in his typewriter, on which the single word "Counselor" was written.

In accordance with his wishes, Thompson's ashes were blasted into the night sky from a 153ft cannon on August 20.

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