May 2019 Auction Ends Thursday, May 30th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/30/2019
Hunter S. Thompson autograph letter signed "HST", in a rambling missive to his friend Paul Semonin that somehow makes perfect sense in the whole. Dated 10 January (1964), Thompson pens four pages on "Heart o' Denver" motel stationery, during an assignment for "The Observer" to write an article on hearings concerning the 1964 Wilderness Act. Letter reads in part,
"Dear Pig Iron…All of our rhetoric (yeah, yours too) is a desperate smoke screen to hide the fact that the stars are going out. That is the battle that never changes. The realization of the big zero. Eddie Fischer just sang - on my all-purpose radio-TV-Muzak - he sang 'You Gotta Have Heart'. That shit.
I see now that my quarrell [sic] with you has nothing to do with whether or not you are right or wrong but whether or not you are dodging the issue. That's the trouble with the Faith - you can't keep it.
No amount or quality of Journalism can preserve that fine, high sound. Maybe nothing else can, either, but I think maybe fiction will come closer. In that, you can lie to yourself well enough - if you write well enough - to keep a long focus. I don't expect you to agree with me - but it will come to you some day when Marx begins paying your expenses. Draw me a good jackdaw - HST". Four page letter on four sheets measures 7.25" x 10.5". Folds and light toning, else near fine.
Hunter S. Thompson Autograph Letter Signed -- ''...No amount or quality of Journalism can preserve that fine, high sound...maybe fiction will come closer...''
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