Actually, I don’t think it makes much difference. Johnson looks ready to take us all over the brink in a fit of stupid rage and frustration. He fucks up every time he turns around, but he still has the main clout. I wrote Eugene McCarthy and said I’d help if he thought he needed any, but that looks pretty bleak, too. Right now I should be writing my new “column” in Ramparts, but I can’t get up the zap for it. We’re into a very evil bag. I want to get my new passport arranged and get a fat advance for some non-existent book, so I can leave the country on 24 hours’ notice. The bastard is looking for a reason to declare war officially, and all hell will break loose when that happens. I see a Nixon-Johnson election coming up, and that’s too much for my head. Maybe the dope freaks are right.
No word from Kennedy in months. I don’t know what it means. McGarr has turned devious and fuck crazy, jumping from one bad scene to another, hanging me up with friends, etc. I don’t even know what to make of it, but I guess he’ll eventually calm down. […]
Off to bed now, almost dawn here. 4–5–6 inches of snow on the ground, cold as hell, probably as good a place as any to hide right now. The last address I had for Noonan was AmExpress, Paris. If you’re heading south try that, but I think he’s in Spain by now. I gave him your Amsterdam address. Sandy is pregnant again. Sow and ye shall reap.…
Hunter
Hunter and Juan Thompson.
(PHOTO BY DAVID PIERCE; COURTESY OF HST COLLECTION)
1. Paul Krassner was the editor of The Realist, a Los Angeles-based counterculture magazine.
2. Elsie was Barger’s “old lady” at the time. She died in a motorcycle crash, leaving behind a young son.
3. CBC was supposed to pay Thompson for appearing on their television talk show.
4. Skip Werkman, a Hell’s Angel, was a surprise guest on the Toronto (CBC) talk show.
5. Thompson had agreed to give the Hell’s Angels all free books, an offer he reneged 011 after the stomping.
6. A San Francisco Hell’s Angel.
7. Thompson had appeared on Irv Kup’s eponymous TV show.
8. Paul Cunningham was a news reporter on the Today show.
9. West was a progressive magazine in Los Angeles.
10. Another literary agent, who would represent Thompson in later years.
11. II. Lawrence Lack, publisher of the Los Angeles Free Press.
12. Stanley Owsley, the legendary LSD chemist.
13. A well-known dealer of psychedelics.
14. Ginzburg had been an editor at Esquire and Eros and was now an editor at Fact magazine.
15. Kerista was a loosely formed cult-like tribe at the time. It evolved into a well-known commune several years later.
16. Julian Hart was the press officer at the embassy in Rio. His wife helped the U.S. press corps get access to officials.
17. Jim Jensen, a CBS reporter, was working on a story about motorcycle gangs.
18. Peter Dominick was a Republican senator from Colorado.
19. Pope Dau, a charismatic cult leader, wanted Thompson to write about his messianic powers.
20. Dink Stover was the hero in a series of upbeat stories for teenagers.
21. Thompson was writing a Nevada-based story for The New York Times.
22. Hinckle had a spider monkey in his office, which Thompson despised.
23. Dave Pierce was the mayor of Richmond. California.
24. Thompson’s lawyer. His name has been changed here.
25. The brand of rifle purportedly used to kill JFK.
26. Eric Hoffer was a popular Bay Area socialist writer.
27. Thompson had recorded the La Honda party/meeting between the Hell’s Angels and Merry Pranksters on cassettes and had promised to send them to Wolfe, who would later use them in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (New York, 1968).
28. Berry had presented Thompson with an official police badge to use if he found himself in a legal jam.
EPILOGUE
“MIDNIGHT ON THE COAST HIGHWAY”
San Francisco, 1960
All my life my heart has sought a thing I cannot name.
–Remembered line from a long-forgotten poem
Months later, when I rarely saw the Angels, I still had the legacy of the big machine–four hundred pounds of chrome and deep red noise to take out on the Coast Highway and cut loose at three in the morning, when all the cops were lurking over on 101. My first crash had wrecked the bike completely and it took several months to have it rebuilt. After that I decided to ride it differently: I would stop pushing my luck on curves, always wear a helmet, and try to keep within range of the nearest speed limit … my insurance had already been canceled and my driver’s license was hanging by a thread.
So it was always at night, like a werewolf, that I would take the thing out for an honest run down the coast. I would start in Golden Gate Park, thinking only to run a few long curves to clear my head, but in a matter of minutes I’d be out at the beach with the sound of the engine in my ears, the surf booming up on the sea wall and a fine empty road stretching all the way down to Santa Cruz … not even a gas station in the whole seventy miles; the only public light along the way is an all-night diner down around Rockaway Beach.
There was no helmet on those nights, no speed limit, and no cooling it down on the curves. The momentary freedom of the park was like the one unlucky drink that shoves a wavering alcoholic off the wagon. I would come out of the park near the soccer field and pause for a moment at the stop sign, wondering if I knew anyone parked out there on the midnight humping strip.
Then into first gear, forgetting the cars and letting the beast wind out … thirty-five, forty-five … then into second and wailing through the light at Lincoln Way, not worried about green or red signals but only some other werewolf loony who might be pulling out too slowly, to start his own run. Not many of these–and with three lanes on a wide curve, a bike coming hard has plenty of room to get around almost anything–then into third, the boomer gear, pushing seventy-five and the beginning of a windscream in the ears, a pressure on the eyeballs like diving into water off a high board.
Bent forward, far back on the seat, and a rigid grip on the handlebars as the bike starts jumping and wavering in the wind. Taillights far up ahead coming closer, faster, and suddenly–zaapppp–going past and leaning down for a curve near the zoo, where the road swings out to sea.
The dunes are flatter here, and on windy days sand blows across the highway, piling up in thick drifts as deadly as any oil slick … instant loss of control, a crashing, cartwheeling slide and maybe one of those two-inch notices in the paper the next day: “An unidentified motorcyclist was killed last night when he failed to negotiate a turn on Highway 1.”
Indeed … but no sand this time, so the lever goes up into fourth, and now there’s no sound except wind. Screw it all the way over, reach through the handlebars to raise the headlight beam, the needle leans down on a hundred, and wind-burned eyeballs strain to see down the centerline, trying to provide a margin for the reflexes.
But with the throttle screwed on there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes. It has to be done right … and that’s when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get back to your ears. The only sounds are wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it,… howling through a turn to the right, then to the left and down the long hill to Pacifica … letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge … The Edge.… There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The others–the living–are those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.
But the edge is still Out There. Or maybe it’s In. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definition.
THE PROUD HIGHWAY HONOR ROLL
David Amram
Joan Baez
Bob Braudis
Douglas Brinkley
William Burroughs
Johnny Depp
Donna Dowling
Wayne Ewing
Stacey Hadash
Hal Haddon
Laura Heymann
Abe Hutt
Don Johnson
William Kennedy
Lee Levert
Annie McClanahan
P. J. O’Rourke
Julie Oppenheimer
Beth Pearson
Curtis Robinson
David Rosenthal
Shelby Sadler
Madeline Sloan
Juan Thompson
Virginia Thompson
George Tobia, Jr.
Oliver Treibeck
Gerald “Ching” Tyrell
Townes Van Zandt
Jennifer Webb
Jane Wenner
Jann Wenner
Lawson Wills
Jennifer Winkel
Molly Wright
Warren Zevon
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF LETTERS
1955
“Open Letter to the Youth of Our Nation”
“Security”
“Night-watch”
1956
September 22 To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell
September 29 To Virginia Thompson
October 18 To Elizabeth Ray
October 24 To Jack Thompson
October 25 To Ralph Peterson
November 3 To Henry Stites
November 10 To Sergeant Ted Stephens
November 11 To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell
November 18 To Judy Stellings
December 1 To Porter Bibb III
December 12 To Rutledge Lilly
1957
February 3 To Judy Stellings
February 5 To Virginia Thompson
February 6 To Porter Bibb III
March 3 To Judy Stellings
March 10 To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell
March 17 To the Athenaeum Literary Association
April 11 To Virginia Thompson
May 3 To the Chamber Music Society
May 11 To Kay Menyers
June 6 To Chaplain (Lieutenant Colonel) Robert Rutan
June 26 To L. J. Dale, National Association of Schools and Publishers, Inc.
June 29 To Susan Haselden
July 13 To Susan Haselden
August 5 To Susan Haselden
August 23 From Colonel W. S. Evans, Chief, Office of Information Services, U.S. Air Force
August 25 To Susan Haselden
August 28 To Virginia Thompson
October 17 To Kraig Juenger
October 24 To Joe Bell
October 30 To Larry Callen
November 4 To Kraig Juenger
November 8 From Hunter S. Thompson, News Release (regarding his honorable discharge)
November 29 To Lieutenant Colonel Frank Campbell
November 29 To Virginia Thompson
December 12 To Larry Callen
December 14 To George Logan
December 14 To Mrs. Spencer, Automobile Association of America
December 15 To Joe Bell
December 23 To Kraig Juenger
December 27 To Susan Haselden
December 28 To Virginia Thompson
1958
January 2 To Fred Fulkerson
January 6 To Lieutenant Colonel Frank Campbell
January 9 To Henry Eichelburger
January 15 To Carol Overdorf
January 17 To Sally Williams
January 23 To Virginia Thompson
January 28 To Captain K. Feltham
January 29 To Arch Gerhart
February 17 To Susan Haselden
March 17 To Kay Menyers
March 18 To Susan Haselden
March 18 To Kraig Juenger
March 31 To down beat magazine
April 2 To Sally Williams (including “Debt Letter”)
April 13 To Susan Haselden
April 22 To Hume Logan
April 29 To The New York Times
May 1 To Susan Haselden
May 19 To The Village Voice
June 4 To Ann Frick
June 6 To Larry Callen
July 4 To Larry Callen
July 4 To Kraig Juenger
July 14 To Larry Callen
August 29 To Ann Frick
September 5 To Ann Frick
September 26 To Paul Semonin
October 1 To Jack Scott, Vancouver Sun
November 12 To Susan Haselden
November 22 To Kraig Juenger
December 7 To Editor & Publisher
December 19 To Ann Frick
1959
January 7 To Ann Frick
January 23 To Ann Frick
January 31 To Virginia Thompson
February 21 To Ann Frick
March 1 To The New York Times
March 3 To Ann Frick [not mailed]
March 25 To Ann Frick
March 27 To Judy Booth
March 30 To William Faulkner
June 3 To Roger Richards
June 7 To Larry Callen
June 8 To Ann Frick
June 12 To Ed Fancher, The Village Voice (including press release)
June 17 To Robert D. Ballou, Viking Press
June 20 To Rust Hills, Esquire
June 25 To Rust Hills, Esquire
June 26 To Ann Frick
August 9 To William J. Dorvillier, San Juan Star
August 9 To Virginia Thompson
August 10 To the New York Department of Labor
August 25 From William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
August 30 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
September 4 To William Styron
September 5 To Jack Benson, Viking Press
September 8 From William J. Kennedy
September 10 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
September 12 To Elizabeth McKee
October 1 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
October 20 To Whom It May Concern
October 22 From William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
October 29 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
November 6 To the Municipal Court Magistrate
November 8 To Elizabeth McKee
November 25 To Puerto Rico Bowling News
December 14 To Philip Kramer, Puerto Rico Bowling News
December 14 To Robert Bone
December 28 To Mark Ethridge, Louisville Courier-Journal
1960
January 14 To Home (Virginia Thompson)
January 15 To Distribution Manager, Brown-Williamson Tobacco Company
January 26 To Sandy Conklin
March 22 To Angus Cameron, Alfred A. Knopf
March 22 To Ann Schoelkopf
April 7 To Sandy Conklin
April 13 To Davison Thompson
April 17 To Sandy Conklin
May 25 To Laurie Hosford
July 2 To Home (Virginia Thompson)
July 16 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
July 24 To Editor, Grove Press
August 9 To Virginia Thompson
August 10 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
August 17 To Eleanor McGarr
August 26 To Eugene W. McGarr
August 28 To Eleanor McGarr
September 11 To The New York Times
October 1 To Sandy Conklin
October 3 To Sandy Conklin
October 19 To Eugene W. McGarr
October 22 To Editor, Time
October 25 To Mr. Dooley, San Francisco Examiner
October 25 To Abe Mellinkoff, San Francisco Chronicle
“Down and Ou
t in San Francisco”
October 28 To Sandy Conklin
November 15 To Laurie Hosford
December 8 To J. P. Donleavy
December 15 To Abe Mellinkoff, San Francisco Chronicle
December 23 To Ann Schoelkopf
1961
January 6 To Paul Semonin
January 9 To Mrs. V. A. Murphy
January 11 To John Macauley Smith
January 16 To Mrs. V. A. Murphy
February 1 To Norman Mailer
March 7 To Lieutenant Colonel Frank Campbell
March 18 To Virginia Thompson
April 26 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
June 2 To Banks Shepherd
June 15 To Sterling Lord
June 26 To Sterling Lord
June 26 To Frank M. Robinson, Rogue
“Big Sur: The Garden of Agony”
July 21 To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star
August 4 To Ann Schoelkopf
August 13 To Mrs. V. A. Murphy
August 14 To Frank Robinson, Rogue
August 20 To William J. Kennedy
September 29 To Mrs. Chapman
October 13 To Virginia Thompson
October 14 To Alfred Kazin
October 19 To Eugene W. McGarr
October 21 To William J. Kennedy
November 10 To Eleanor McGarr
November 21 To Articles Editor, Atlantic Monthly
December 8 To Mike Murphy
December 11 To News Editor, Louisville Times
December 21 To Mr. M. L. Sharpley
December 22 To Frank Robinson, Rogue
“New York Bluegrass”
1962
January 21 To Paul Semonin
January 25 To the National Rifle Association
February 2 To Eugene W. McGarr
February 7 To Paul Semonin
February 15 To Candida Donadio
February 16 To Lionel Olay
February 26 To James Zanutto, Features Editor, Pop Photo
February 28 To Eugene W. McGarr
March 13 To Daryl Murphy
March 14 To William J. Kennedy