Fear and Loathing in America: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist 1968-1976

Ordinarily, I wouldn't think letters would be that interesting. But Thomson's style and sense of humor are so outrageous, I find myself laughing out loud every few pages or so. But it's much more than humor. The letters overlap the period of Martin Luther King's Assassination, Robert F. Kennedy's Assassination, the Democratic National Convention of 1968 (which he attended), etc. I was struck at how he tried to convince his younger brother to stay in college for at least another semester, because by then, we would probably be out of Vietnam. It was apparent to him at the time that we would leave. And yet...Saigon didn't fall until April 1975. He also has a particular revulsion for Nixon, who has always been a fascinating figure for me. And of course,there are letters to his fans. He clearly has fear and loathing for some of them. His letters to and about them are hillarious. A great read.

Two of my favorite contemporary writers have died unexpectedly in the past few months - the Mississippi writer Larry Brown and, more recently, Hunter S. Thompson, who committed suicide on Feb. 20. Both were deaths that affected me greatly. Usually when I hear of a notable passing, my reaction is, "Oh, no," but in both of these cases my first thought was to hope that the news wasn't true. In the days following Thompson's death, I found myself going over some of his work - a documentary on the Criterion "Fear & Loathing" DVD, "The Great Shark Hunt" and "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas." But the book that I found myself reading the most, and finding a kind of solace in, is this one: Thompson's collected letters from 1968-76. I used to work in a bookstore and there was always a question of where "Las Vegas" belonged. It obviously wasn't fiction but it also couldn't be entirely true, and that's part of its genius. But with "The Gonzo Letters, Volume II" there is no doubt that this is the genuine article, this is probably the closest look we'll get at what Thompson was like. The sheer fact that he wrote and saved so many letters in the first place tells you a lot about the man himself. The correspondence here runs the gamut: letters to Oscar Acosta, Tom Wolfe, Charles Kuralt, William Kennedy, Jann Wenner, his brother, his mother, his broker and anybody he had a beef with. The letters take us through his early ups and downs, his campaign for sheriff of Pitkin County and we not only get to follow him through the success of "Las Vegas," but also part of the process of him refining surrealism and colorful exaggeration into the style he'd use in that book. And tucked away in the book, on page 181 is a letter that gave me a smile and a shiver of sadness as I read it with the news playing in the background on TV. It's a May 19, 1969 letter to the Disabled American Veterans Association, in response to a solicitation for a donation. Thompson opposed the then-raging war in Vietnam and was flabbergasted that the DAV would support it. His reply is so fierce and funny and sad that it even stung me, a bystander, 35 years later.

This is a special, limited edition of Hunter S. Thompsons' Fear and Loathing in America. To see more reviews of this title, look it up under the regular hardcover edition. What makes this edition so special is the signature, spelled out "H.S. Thompson" on the book itself, rather than on a bookplate. There are a number of instances in the past where the Doctor signed a bookplate "HST", or even a front page, yet even these are extremely uncommon. Collectors may note that full signature Hunter S. Thompson works are very, very rare indeed, and sell for up to $2900.00. According to a Simon & Schuster rep, there are only 300 of the special signed edition in existence. It is a reddish, leather-bound volume with the knife-and-fist Gonzo trademark imprinted on the front cover. The edges are gilt, making this edition look rather more like a bible then other, more familiar Steadman covers. Obviously designed for the dedicated fan of an American legend, this edition will occupy a prize position on your bookshelf, next to other HST works that you would be wise not to lend out.

Considering there are at least 5 biographies floating around about Hunter S. Thompson, and he doesn't seem the type to write an autobiography, this is the closest thing we will ever get. Picking up where Volume I left off, Fear and Loathing in America is a complete reversal of fortune from its predecessor. Whereas Volume I documented the lament and poverty of Thompson as a young, struggling writer, dealing with the rigors of hustling a career in journalism or literature without working a "real job"--this volume covers Thompson in his shining glory years. Fresh off the success of Hells Angels, he conquers with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. Not only that, but it covers everything in-between, providing a much-needed counterpoint to the extreme surreal elements of his gonzo journalism, showing us the facts that exists outside the books and the articles. Thompson almost always portrays himself as the smirking, all-knowing, invulnerable watcher of things. Even when writing from his own point of view, he becomes the omniscient narrator and the cruel god watching over the world he is describing. Very rarely does he get really personal and revealing in his writing, nor does he need to. This volume is filled with personal correspondence, journalistic entries about Thompson's life and times. And his writing here is just as solid as it is in any of his books. His ability to bend language and make it bark and snarl at the end of his leash is what makes Thompson an irreplacable American writer, and a perfect vehicle to have documented the turbulence of the last 4 decades. This volume of letters is the perfect companion to the flash and bang of his books, giving us an altogether different point of view of Thompson's life and lets us make our own conclusions about how much life imitates art and helps us realize that it works the other way 'round as well.

I'm a contemporary American Lit. scholar, and for any literature scholar, primary documents are of utmost importance when determining relevant interpretations and plausable meanings for pieces. Here, in the second volume of Thompson's letters, you are able to get a glimpse of how Thompson constructs the public image of madness and depravity, all the while maintaining his reflective distance from the material he's writing.Within these covers you can see the arduous revision process as Thompson struggles with the work-in-progress of his best known book, _Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas_. He considers it a "failed experiment in Gonzo journalism," but that's what makes it great. The revision process makes so many good writers into great writers (I have in mind most of the great Maxwell Perkins' disciples - F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemmingway, Ring Lardner, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, et al.)This book, and the first collection of his letters, _The Proud Highway_, are essential to anyone who wants to know more about the REAL Hunter S. Thompson, and the method behind the madness.