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Photo by Bill Hardesty

FEATURING:

“The Hell’s Angels Letters & The Origins of Gonzo” Panel with Margaret Ann Harrell | Louisville, KY | North Carolina Writers’ Network (ncwriters.org)

Event Artwork: Grant Goodwine

Matt Hahn and Margaret Harrell, Gonzofest ’23

William McKeen and Ron Whitehead, GF ’23

The Hell’s Angels Letters panel, Gonzofest

The Hell’s Angels LETTERS Esteemed Panel, Gonzofest ’23

Tim Denevi (Freak Kingdom) and Margaret Harrell (Hell’s Angels Letters)

Dr. John Brick, GonzoFest panel,, and Danielle

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If you would like it personally signed, contact me.  I will take orders to deliver personally to the Gonzofest in July 2013! It’s a marvelous gift or for your personal collection.

Read reviews and a book description on BookLife here.

Below are some reactions to The Hell’s Angels Letters followed by photos related to the book and me. Cover: Grant Goodwine. For collectors, there is a limited edition of 120 (at $120). For the high-end coffee table edition ($60, 297 pages, many in color), you can’t go wrong, as underscored enthusiastically by every single reader. Attention: there’s now an ebook  option on Amazon here.

REVIEWS:

The eminent reviewer for the Washington Post Michael Dirda has given a Big Head’s Up to The Hell’s Angels Letters: Hunter S. Thompson, Margaret Harrell and the Making of an American Classic in his October 8, 2020, write-up about it inside a piece called “Can’t get enough Game of Thrones or Star Wars? New editions on cult favorites are here to satisfy:

Among late 20th-century American writers, none can rival Norman Mailer and Hunter S. Thompson in sheer force of personality, both on the page and in person. Mailer, whether in his fiction, polemical essays or reportage, always aimed to be consequential, to be fiercely engaged with his times. Would that he were living now! For a hint of what we’ve lost, check out the latest book-length issue, Volume 13, of “The Mailer Review” at the home page of The Norman Mailer Society. Thompson’s motto might well have been “Nothing in moderation.” For “The ‘Hell’s Angels’ Letters,” Margaret Ann Harrell — in collaboration with Ron Whitehead — has assembled a dossier of all her correspondence with Thompson during the time she worked as the editor of the gonzo writer’s “strange and terrible saga of the outlaw motorcycle gangs.” Typed manuscript pages, scribbled notes, photographs, interviews and all sorts of period ephemera relating to “Hell’s Angels” allow the reader a valuable, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the making of this classic of New Journalism.

Beatdom review by publisher David Wills, author of High White Notes:

Finding the truth amidst the Gonzo madness of Hunter Thompson’s life story is not easy. He was an incorrigible self-mythologiser and the books about him tend to incorporate many of his own fantastic – and totally untrue – stories as though they were fact. Harrell attempted to dispel at least one of these myths in Keep This Quiet and digs deeper in The Hell’s Angels Letters, determined to set the record straight about how and where Thompson got the idea for a book on the Death of the American Dream and how his pet snake can to a violent end.

As the title implies, this book is mainly comprised of letters between Harrell and Thompson, some typed and some handwritten, and all printed here in colour. Of course, there are already two collections of Hunter Thompson’s letters available, but somehow they are even more enjoyable when read in the original form. Whether typed or scrawled in giant letters with a red pen, Thompson’s correspondence is invariably annotated and corrected in his unique way, adding a layer of personality that was missing from the collections, as well – of course – as Harrell’s explanations that provide further insight.

Margaret Harrell, The Hell’s Angels Letters launch

In case you missed it, there’s a Gonzo Today review of The Hell’s Angels Letters Letters by Kyle K. Mann, Editor-in-Chief. It opens like this:

This is a big book, literally and figuratively. The short version:

The Hell’s Angels Letters is a must-have text for any Hunter S. Thompson fan. Lavishly documented and illustrated with the actual correspondence that led to the publication of his breakthrough literary effort, ‘Hell’s Angels,’ this coffee-table book literally shows how HST boot-strapped his way from a impoverished nobody journalist to growing legend. The author, Margaret Harrell, who was Thompson’s editor on his inaugural book, and her collaborator, Thompson’s friend and associate poet Ron Whitehead, have succeeded brilliantly to create a fabulous present for you, or anyone in your life who admires Thompson’s numerous achievements. It is not inexpensive, but no matter, it’s worth every penny. The Hell’s Angels Letters: Hunter S Thompson, Margaret Harrell and the Making of an American Classic gets five stars out of five! Bravo!

The long version:

I was delighted to get the package at the Topanga Post Office from Ron. I got it home and opened it eagerly. As I flipped through the pages, I was astounded to see typewritten and even handwritten letters from HST. Beyond amazing! But, how the freaking hell am I going to review it?

It sat on my desk for weeks, demanding attention. I found myself resentful as the days went by… what am I doing with this monstrosity? I’d open it and recoil due to the intensity of HST’s personality, roaring off the page. I tried getting stoned and looking anew, but nope, way too heavy to digest and analyze in that state. Yet, Ron had sent it to me to review, and I knew our Gonzo Today readers wanted, even needed, to get my take.

To continue reading, click here.

In the Hunter Thompson Kitchen, Frazier Museum

First official reader review:

The Hell’s Angels Letters is a unique combination: at the center is Hunter Thompson’s letters to his contact person at Random House as his bestseller Hell’s Angels comes into being. (That contact continues thereafter.) Beside this is the admiring and excited perspective of that beautiful young woman at Random House, who then changes course to set off on some adventures of her own. (She turns out to be very interesting and deep in her own way, becoming more complex as she matures.) Interwoven is a history of the times, from literary and political perspectives, with a cast of characters from then. Plus interviews and short articles by authorities exploring Hunter Thompson’s  legacy. Photographs. And witty cartoons. 

I found this highly accessible book intriguing in a down-to-Earth very human way, requiring not metaphors, but rather—it seems to me—a deeply self-revealing honesty. I have liked it tremendously.

Paul Krassner, a player in The Hell’s Angels Letters

Virginia Williams, PhD, President of Williams LifeSkills

With Rory Feehan at the Frazier 2019

Juan Thompson, Margaret Harrell, Tim Denevi

Tim Denevi and Margaret Harrell

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The Dancer

Sometime ago, I had the lucky opportunity to wander alone through the rooms of these drawings in Bruges. A small but significant, highly interesting exhibit of Picasso’s  drawings. As always, there’s a lot of wit, and what amazed me was the ability to say so much with so few strokes of the pen. It’s here that a drawing of mine was on exhibit in December 2018. After leaving here, it’s going to a yoga institute in Bruges for two months, on sale. After that, if not sold, it has another beautiful spot to go to, the het Toreke Museum in Tienen, a town I lived in for many years.

The Face of Peace

Corrida

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Here is one of my newest images, though it’s poor quality. It’s being rescanned right now and I’ll insert the new scan next week, after it’s returned and I work on it a bit.

Cloud Scenes

Here is some background from Wikipedia:

The Ward-Nasse Gallery, founded by Harry Nasse, first opened as a commercial art gallery in Boston during the early sixties. When Harry Nasse moved to New York in 1970, he switched to artist-run cooperative status for the gallery. All modes of contemporary art are exhibited, from traditionally executed works to more experimental art forms. Artists from across the country share walls with artists from Europe, Asia and South America.

Because Ward-Nasse Art Gallery presents mostly group exhibitions, for the more than 40 years of operation the full list of artists who have exhibited is quite extensive, and numbers in the thousands. Some New York City artists who have started their careers or who continue to exhibit at Ward-Nasse are Laurie Anderson, performance artist; Jessica Diamond and Mark Dion, both represented by the American Fine Arts Co.; Paul Laffoley, represented by the Kent Gallery; Daniel Ouellette, represented by the Alexander Gallery; Harvey Quatman, represented by the McKee Gallery; Nicholas Arbatsky, exhibited at Artist’s Space and the John Baer Gallery; Amy Ernst, exhibited at the Anita Shapolsky Gallery; and John Miller, represented by metro Pictures ; John Marshall, Perry Hoberman, Harris Barron, Horst Liepolt, Amanda Fraser, Anthony Coffey, Olan Montgomery, Petr Šálek and many more.

Thanks again to Ward-Nasse. May it bring in sales!

Postscript: Ward-Nasse has just moved to New Jersey. Read about it here. Nothing else has changed, though, except the location.

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Romania cloud photography 1990s

Many of us know the word “light being.” A shaman teacher I had, Joska Soos,  used to paint them, as above, in “The Light Sound Buddha” – 2004. I wonder how many people can “see” the light beings I see in the two photographs by me to the left here. I would love to know what you see. The one immediately to the left was in Romania, in  a “flying fleet.” But I saw a much coarser look than in the light-streaming being at the bottom, in “Flying Being.” Yet both had similar overall features. However, the larger one may only have assumed the form for a moment. If anyone has another story to go with these two photos let me know.

“Flying Being” – Tienen Belgium cloud

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