Thompson, Hunter S. — Ralph Steadman | "The Charge of the Weird Brigade" — Thompson on the Honolulu Marathon

Thompson, Hunter S. — Ralph Steadman

Archive of correspondence related to the publication of a piece on the Honolulu Marathon for Running magazine, including Thompson's Amex card, and an original drawing by Steadman, 28 May 1980–15 September 1984

Comprising: 3 autograph letters signed and 5 typed letters signed by Hunter S. Thompson ("HST"), 1 American Express credit card issued to Thompson; 4 autograph letters signed by Ralph Steadman ("Ralph," "Ralph Steadman"), and 1 drawing by Ralph Steadman on spiral notebook paper (captioned " Duncan Macdonald | 7.Dec.80. | Prince Kuhio Hotel Honolulu" and signed "Ralph Steadman." Overall 15 1/2 pages from HST and 7 pages from Steadman, various places (Owl Farm, Kona, Kent), on Rolling Stone, Woody Creek Rod & Gun Club, and Running magazine letterheads, most with their original envelopes. Includes the April 1981 issue of Running magazine, with the published piece "The Charge of the Weird Brigade." Overall very good condition, with the expected condition issues (old folds, staple and paperclip marks, and a few short closed tears from handing).

The origins of The Curse of Lono.

After the successes of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72, Hunter S. Thompson's journalistic output had begun to falter, when he was approached by Paul Perry of Running magazine about covering the 1980 Honolulu Marathon. It may seem like an unlikely fit, but Running was a literary-focused publication, and HST found himself published alongside other writers such as Ken Kesey and Israel Horowitz. The present archive of unpublished correspondence traces their project from its nascent stages, through to its reworked publication in book form as The Curse of Lono.

The earliest letter dates from 28 May 1980, and captures Thompson's initial intrigue with the idea: "Okay. What the fuck is the Honolulu Marathon? And when does it happen? This whole gig about 'running' strikes me as sort of mental illness ... Hot Damn! I think you’re onto something here, Paul. We can cover this goddamn thing in a style that will make a lot of people wish that wolves had stolen them from their cradles … it’s weird, but it interests me and it might even be fun."

Running magazine was funded by Nike, and HST's humorous and glib reviews of their shoes are peppered throughout the archive ("They are ugly beyond reason"; "...these things look like the kind of footwear you’d see under the stands at a cockfight”). Thompson's humor is on full display in a letter from 25 August, where, in response to Perry's comment that writers are a credit risk, the Gonzo journalist has enclosed a cancelled Amex to prove his own credit-worthiness: “Stick the enc. On yr. souvenir mirror and let’s not have any more of this snide rich-editor’s gibberish about the realities of my American Express gig."

Thompson requests that his longtime collaborator—the illustrator Ralph Steadman—be brought in: "Can we get Ralph over from London for some art? He works cheap and fast; don’t worry about it – I’ll handle him.” Writing to Perry from Kona on 26 December, he encloses Steadman's portrait of the winner of the Honolulu Marathon, Duncan MacDonald, executed in Hawaii on race day. The present lot also includes four letters from Steadman to Perry, rounding out the archive's documentation of the editorial process.

Notwithstanding his legendary volatility, Thompson was happy with the piece, writing to Perry following the publication on 3 March 1981: "Your Honolulu idea was a good one, and (more important), it was also a good, weird workout … and it was a bit of fun, despite all my bitching and raving & even the social problems.” HST and Perry kept in touch over the next couple years, maintaining a professional relationship that came just shy of bringing him on board during the fraught process of expanding the Honolulu piece into book form (The Curse of Lono. New York: Bantam Books, 1983). Thompson touches on this in a letter from 9 September 1982: "The Lono book has become a definite problem – a once-simple spin-off that got caught in Bantam’s best-seller machine, where it was never meant to be in the first place. I am sitting here now with a 200-pg. ms. That I don’t want to publish + cant afford not to."

A compelling archive of unpublished correspondence between Thompson and his editor.

PROVENANCE:

Paul Perry (Author of Fear and Loathing: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Hunter S. Thompson, and former Executive Editor of Running Magazine)