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The Hell’s Angels Letters: Hunter S. Thompson, Margaret Harrell and the Making of an American Classic is an important revelation in the legacy of Thompson, with letters that survived precarious shipping and travel over decades, cloaked away from the public. “If Hell’s Angels hadn’t happened I never would have been able to write Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or anything else . . . I felt like I got through a door just as it was closing,” Hunter told Paris Review. When he secured a hardcover contract with Jim Silberman (Random House), the known part of the story breaks off. To whip up the final edits, Margaret A. Harrell, a young copy editor/assistant editor to Jim, was—in a break from the norm—given full rein to work with him by expensive long-distance phone and letter. This galvanizing action led to a fascinating tale. She uses the letters to resuscitate the cloaked, suspenseful withheld drama. The book peaks in their romantic get-together at his ranch twenty-one years after they last met, a moving tie maintained over the years. What happens, then? Read on and see.
“Margaret had a challenging and trusted relationship with Hunter as his Assistant Editor in 1966 while working on his first published book, Hell’s Angels, at Random House. Margaret’s energy was noted by Hunter as she chose to be available 24/7. Thus dealing with Hunter’s ‘many demands’. . . My guess is that Hunter said: ‘I have certain punctuations and wording that must be accepted as is . . . Never change anything without running it by me.’ Margaret gets an award for ‘Rolling With Hunter’ at a very important time while launching his first book.”
— Deborah Fuller, longtime personal assistant and trusted confidante of Hunter Thompson
Details: 150 scans, mostly in color; about 75 full-page scans of letters by Hunter to Margaret
About Hunter S ThompsonThe Hell’s Angels Letters book is an important revelation in the legacy of Hunter Thompson. How important did Hunter think Hell’s Angels was? If Hell’s Angels hadn’t happened I never would have been able to write Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas or anything else. To be able to earn a living as a freelance writer in this country is damned hard . . . Hell’s Angels all of a sudden proved to me that, Holy Jesus, maybe I can do this. . . . I felt like I got through a door just as it was closing.
– Hunter Thompson, Paris Review
About Margaret HarrellIt was no easy task working with Hunter. He had high standards and expected the same in return. A select few people, however, were held in high esteem by The Good Doctor. One such person is Margaret Harrell, who worked as copy editor on Hell’s Angels. Five decades later, she is still correcting errors in the narrative in aid of the truth. No wonder Hunter called her the best copy editor he ever worked with.
– Rory Patrick Feehan, HST scholar, author of PhD dissertation “The Genesis of the Hunter Figure,” owner of Totally Gonzo, the very traffickedIrish blog
About Ron WhiteheadRon Whitehead is a real visionary. Ron Whitehead, out there in Kentucky, out there where the tall heroes used to grow, is sowing the dragon’s teeth of a new heroics. Ron Whitehead is Bodhisattva in Kentucky.
– Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Interior design: Deborah Purdue
Illuminationgraphics.com
Photograph: Deborah Fuller
Contributors: Journalism Chair at Boston University William McKeen, author of Outlaw Journalist; Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist David Streitfeld, author of Hunter S. Thompson: The Last Interview and Other Conversations; Hunter Thompson scholar Dr. Rory Patrick Feehan
Interviews (important figures in Hunter’s life): editor Jim Silberman, folk singer Rosalie Sorrels, mayor of Richmond, David Pierce, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist William Kennedy
Also appearing: Oscar Zeta Acosta (Dr. Gonzo); Paul Krassner (editor of The Realist)
