"WE WERE SOMEWHERE AROUND BARSTOW ON THE EDGE OF THE DESERT WHEN THE DRUGS BEGAN TO TAKE HOLD": FIRST EDITION OF FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

THOMPSON, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. New York: Random House, (1971). Octavo, original half black cloth, original dust jacket. $1500.

First edition of Thompson's landmark picaresque journey into the American dream.

"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas… cemented Thompson's place as a singular presence in American journalism or, as he once called himself, 'a connoisseur of edge work" (New York Times). With in-text illustrations by Ralph Steadman, Thompson's second book, the embodiment of Gonzo journalism, "is a custom-crafted study of paranoia, a spew from the 1960s and—in all its hysteria, insolence, insult, and rot—a desperate and important book, a wired nightmare, the funniest piece of American prose since Naked Lunch" (Books of the Century, 278-80). In 1998, Terry Gilliam directed the film version, starring Johnny Depp.

Book with slight soiling to endpapers and mild toning to top and bottom edges. Dust jacket with tiny dent to front panel and faintest dampstain to base of spine. A near-fine copy.