"A KING-HELL BITCH OF A YEAR": FEAR AND LOATHING: ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL '72, FIRST EDITION, SIGNED BY THOMPSON AND ELABORATELY INSCRIBED BY STEADMAN

THOMPSON, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72. (San Francisco): Straight Arrow, (1973). Octavo, original black paper-covered boards, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom clamshell box. $11,000.

First edition, in first-issue dust jacket, of Thompson's "bizarrely irreverent" account of the 1972 presidential campaign. Boldly signed by Thompson and artistically and elaborately inscribed by the illustrator in bright red ink on the half title, "Erik from Ralph Steadman 24.10.92."

Thompson established his reputation with his first book, Hells Angels (1967), displaying his "visceral honesty, his creative blend of fact and fantasy, his rage at convention and power." But he first reached a wide audience with this, his third book. Thompson's coverage of the Nixon-McGovern 1972 presidential campaign "forced mainstream news organizations to take notice. That year, some of his most acerbic lines were quoted in publications like Newsweek and The New York Times" (New York Times). Thompson's focus was on the McGovern campaign during the Democratic primaries and the convention in Miami that year, and the attempt of more mainstream Democrats like Hubert Humphrey to deny the nomination to frontrunner McGovern, who they deemed unelectable; McGovern went on to lose the general election to Nixon in one of the most decisive outcomes in American presidential elections, winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. First edition: first printing: with "First Printing" on the copyright page. First-issue dust jacket, with white border around photograph on rear panel. With in-text political cartoons by Ralph Steadman and candid campaign photographic illustrations.

Book about-fine, dust jacket extremely good with light wear to extremities. Very desirable signed by Thompson and with such an elaborate and artistic inscription by Steadman.