# Is "Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga" by Hunter S. Thompson a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga by Hunter S. Thompson (Random House, 1967) is identified by: Two independent points must both be satisfied. Census claim confirmed in substance: Random House, New York, 1967 is the true first and is Thompson's first book.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Two 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 married to the wrong copies, check both
- The price is present at the front flap on the first-issue jacket
- Octavo, [viii], 279 pp (one dealer collates 278 pp, [1])
- Publisher's black cloth, the front cover pictorially stamped in silver with a motorcycle, the spine lettered in red and silver; black topstain (often partly faded)
- Publisher imprint reads Random House

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Hunter S. Thompson |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Year | 1967 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | Two independent points must both be satisfied |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
Two 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 married to the wrong copies, check both. The price is present at the front flap on the first-issue jacket. Octavo, [viii], 279 pp (one dealer collates 278 pp, [1]). Publisher's black cloth, the front cover pictorially stamped in silver with a motorcycle, the spine lettered in red and silver; black topstain (often partly faded).

## Is this the true first?
Census claim confirmed in substance: Random House, New York, 1967 is the true first and is Thompson's first book. The census's "UK Penguin followed" needs sharpening: 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 first American edition is dated 1967 and printed January 1967.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
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. Separately, a Thompson bibliography documents seven printings of the first edition, with the 3rd, 4th and 7th adding a brief statement by Thompson on the title page about the origin of the work — a title-page note of that kind is a reprint tell and never appears on a first printing.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Hell's Angels: A Strange and Terrible Saga* by Hunter S. Thompson a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/hells-angels-a-strange-and-terrible-saga
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.