May 2019 Auction Ends Thursday, May 30th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/30/2019
Hunter S. Thompson typed letter signed, with additional autograph note, full of punchy and insightful observations on society, art and politics. Dated 28 April (1964), Thompson writes to his childhood friend Paul Semonin on an aerogram, in part, "Well bastard…for some reason I can't speak the language here. I am not with it. For the past two months I have been in a black bog of depression, fathering a son, lying among people more vicious and venal than I ever though existed, and bouncing from one midnight to the next in a blaze of stupid drink. Now -- tomorrow -- I am shoving off for Butte, Montana, Jackson Hole, Bismark ND and that area. The Obs[erver] wants me to go up there and see what's happening…I see it as a prepaid chance to get off and think -- and also to ponder a book called the Badlands Journal that I am already wheeling and dealing with. It will consist of everything I should delete from my novel in order to make it a work of fiction. Sort of like your Vagrant Thinker thing. Or like [James Baldwin's] The Fire Next Time. Personal Journalism is the Wave of the Future. Art is passe, and so it the NYTimes. Now we mix it all up and come on strong…
my reluctant conclusion is that Marxists are the Beatniks of world politics. In twenty years you and your boys over there will be like the veterans of the Lincoln Brigade…My view of [Lyndon] Johnson has scared both the Obs and the Reporter. It's a massive bandwagon…there is no dissent. None. (I just head on the radio that Johnson is running well ahead of Rbt. Kennedy in the Mass primary). This sheep mentality has given me the fear; it is a very German thing and the negroes in this country are up against more than they know. The brute conservatism of the US is the number one fact of our politics. Despite my royalist tendencies I am put down everywhere as a dirty leftist radical; you would be locked up.
I am considering a drift into the Underground, NYC or LA -- or Mexico City as a last resort. I have had no action in so long that it's a wonder I can still write…I am supposed to go back to Louisville in June for Davison's [his brother] wedding, but I hate it like the plague and will duck out if at all possible. The only hope is The Road. A clear head in a bad hour. Things are not breaking like they should. I think the boys in Zanzibar read the signals pretty well; it won't be long before we have Castro on Meet the Press again. How about Brazil, eh? Pope Paul for President…We are coming to another Eisenhower age, and everybody digs it. Even Nixon, who is back in style after a short winter. Johnson has eight years unless he croaks. We will all be old men by then…[signed] H".
Thompson's handwritten note on verso indicates he plans on going back to San Francisco; "After that, a major move - but where?" He then asks Semonin some questions including "How do you read the signals? Answer the above at once." Two page letter (front and verso) measures 7.25" x 12". Some chipping on side from opening and light toning, overall very good plus condition.
Fantastic Hunter S. Thompson Letter Signed From 1964, With Additional Autograph Note -- ''...Personal Journalism is the Wave of the Future...''
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