3 Hunter S. Thompson first editions are documented on this shelf, from Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga (1967) to Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 (1973) across 2 different publishers. Each linked guide gives the points of issue that separate a true first printing of that Hunter S. Thompson title from later printings and book-club copies — the publisher and year to expect, the number-line or edition-statement conventions, and the tells that show up in online listings.
Identification only, per the house rule: no prices and no appraisals here. Checking a Hunter S. Thompson copy in hand? Type the title into the First-Edition Checker or photograph the copyright page with Snap & Sort.
- Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga — 1967 · Random HouseTwo independent points must both be satisfied. First, the copyright page states "First Printing." Second — and this is the point most often missed — the first-issue jacket carries a date code on the front flap reading "1/67"; later printings advance the code ("4/67" on the fourth), so a jacket coded anything other than 1/67 signals a later printing even on a stated-first book. Because jackets are routinely…. Random House, New York, 1967 is the true first and is Thompson's first book. The first UK edition is a 1967 hardcover from Allen Lane / The Penguin Press, London, which follows the US and is recorded by the Thompson bibliography site as very scarce and possibly a limited release to libraries or suppliers. Later Penguin and Ballantine paperback settings are first-thus, not firsts. Some listings date the book 1966;…. The book-club issue is documented as carrying a RED topstain where the first printing has black, with "Book Club" printed on the jacket flap in place of the price and the 1/67 date code. The black topstain on the first printing is corroborated by two independent dealers; the red-topstain club tell rests on one specialist dealer, so confirm via the jacket flap and copyright page rather than the stain alone.….
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas — 1971 · Random HouseFirst US edition, cloth (and a simultaneous wrappered issue). First printing identified by 'First Edition' stated with the number line on the copyright page (Random House convention: 'First Edition' plus '9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2'). First-issue dust jacket with its printed price, illustrated by Ralph Steadman. Random House US (1971) is the true first. The clothbound first in the Steadman jacket is the prime collectible; a simultaneous paperback was also issued. Verify the Random House 'First Edition' statement and the number line. Not a major book-club title but distinguish first printing via the Random House 'First Edition' line; the price-present Steadman jacket is required. Later printings drop the lowest numbers from the line.
- Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 — 1973 · Straight Arrow BooksFirst edition, first printing: Straight Arrow Books, San Francisco, 1973; 506 pages, octavo, bound in black boards stamped in white on the spine with blind-stamped decoration to the front cover and black endpapers. Illustrated throughout with full-page and in-text drawings by Ralph Steadman; jacket art by Tom Benton. The governing point is the jacket, not the book: the first-state jacket has a white border around…. A contemporary UK edition does exist. The US Straight Arrow Books (San Francisco) 1973 edition is the true first. A UK edition followed from Allison & Busby, London, in 1974 (ISBN 085031125X), also 506 pages, with Ralph Steadman jacket art — it is collected in its own right as the first UK edition but is preceded by the American issue by roughly a year. No book club edition is documented in the sources consulted, including the HST Books bibliography, which lists the first issue and the first-edition/second-issue jacket variant but records no club printing.
More Literary Fiction (US) & Award Winners shelves: Iain Banks, Iain M. Banks, Ian McEwan, Iris Murdoch, Irma S. Rombauer, Irwin Shaw.
← All authors · All genres · part of the First-Edition Identification resource.