Books

First edition in book form, first printing, signed by the author on the front free endpaper. This semi-fictional account of Thompson's drug-fuelled trip to Las Vegas with his lawyer, Oscar Zeta Acosta, is rare signed. It was adapted into a film by Terry Gilliam in 1998, starring Johnny Depp and Benicio del Toro. "Written in the voice of Thompson's alter ego, Raoul Duke, a cynical, chain-smoking, whiskey-guzzling, gun-loving connoisseur of illicit drugs, [Fear and Loathing] chronicled the chemically enhanced adventures of Duke and his companion, Dr. Gonzo, as they explored the crassness of American culture" (ANB). Fear and Loathing's blend of fact and fiction initiated the genre of "gonzo journalism", which rejected objectivity and placed the writer or reporter at the centre of the story. It first appeared in November 1971 as a two-part series in Rolling Stone magazine. Octavo. Original black quarter cloth, spine lettered in silver, grey boards with Steadman design on front cover in blind. With dust jacket. Illustrated title page and 19 line drawings by Steadman. Extremities lightly sunned, head of rear cover lightly bumped, a few spots to edges; short closed tear to front fold of slightly toned jacket, unclipped: a near-fine copy in like jacket.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.