FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS (UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOF) by THOMPSON, HUNTER S

New York: Random House, 1972. 8vo. Original printed wraps. UNCORRECTED PAGE PROOFS. Light coffee staining on rear panel. Red pen on the front cover gives a publication date of June 26, 1972. A finished first edition dust jacket is laid in. Very good. Fear and Loathing had its genesis during Thompson’s research for Strange Rumblings in Aztlan, apiece for Rolling Stone. Thompson's source for the story was Oscar Zeta Acosta, a prominentMexican-American activist and attorney. Easier to talk on the road, Thompson and Acosta decidedto travel to Las Vegas and take advantage of an assignment for Sports Illustrated. What originallywas a two-hundred-fifty-word photo-caption-job for Sports Illustrated grew to a novel-length featurestory for Rolling Stone. Thompson recalls that RS editor, Jann Wenner had "liked the first 20 or sojangled pages enough to take it seriously on its own terms and tentatively scheduled it for publication — which gave me the push I needed to keep working on it.” [New York Times Book Review]. Thompson’s first 2,500 word manuscript to Sports Illustrated was "aggressively rejected.”In November 1971, Rolling Stone published the manuscript as a two-part article illustrated by Ralph Steadman. The next year, Random House published the hardcover edition, with additional Steadman illustrations. The New York Times claimed it "by far the best book yet on the decade of dope." Tom Wolfe described it as a "scorching epochal sensation." Thompson’s work is a cornerstone of the New Journalism and single-handedly invented “gonzo journalism.” FEAR AND LOATHING is Thompson’s best-known work with a strong cult following. Very scarce in this advanced state.