August 2020 Auction Ends Thursday, August 27th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 8/27/2020
Hunter S. Thompson typed letter signed ''H'' in type with Thompson circling his initial, written 13 May 1968 on his custom Owl Farm stationery, with a psychedelic owl as mascot. Thompson writes to his friend Paul Semonin, first asking to borrow his Minox camera equipment, before handwriting, ''* Remember - I know what you paid for the whole kit. $45 - right?'' He also writes extensively about an article he's working on for the Los Angeles Times about oil drilling options, ''a fantastic piece of action''. Letter reads in part,
''...What the [f-word] are you up to?...I don't know what to say when people ask me 'What's Semonin doing?' Send a position-paper. / I've spent the past two weeks going very deep, very fast, into the Oil Shale question -- on the pretense of writing an article for the L.A. Times. It's a fantastic piece of action. All technical and geological and $10 million 'experimental losses' shrugged off in the shadow of $100 billion possibilities. I spent all day today with a man who has at least a billion dollars riding on what [Interior Secretary] Stuart Udall might decide about an obscure 'oil problem.' I say 'a billion' in the context of what's on paper -- and that's not extravagant when you consider that one man in Boulder is getting $10 an acre on 40,000 acres -- every year -- from oil companies who're happily paying him that much for an option on his property until Udall makes up his mind...It's a staggering scale to be dealing on when I can't even pay my rent, much less my taxes...H''. Single page letter measures 8.5'' x 11''. Folds and light toning, overall in very good to near fine condition.
Hunter S. Thompson Letter Signed From 1968 With Additional Handwritten Note -- ''...It's a fantastic piece of action...$10 million 'experimental losses' shrugged off...''
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