FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS

New York: Random House, 1971. First edition. Very good plus in a very good plus jacket.. First printing of the book at the heart of the Hunter S. Thompson legend. A desperate, drug-fueled experiment in 'gonzo' journalism, FEAR AND LOATHING was written during Thompson's stint as Washington Correspondent for ROLLING STONE, and first appeared in the magazine in serial installments. Straddling the hazy border between thinly-veiled fiction and experimental journalism, first composed in feverish hotel-room notebook-scribbling sessions, the book remains HST's best-known and most influential work. Surreal, hallucinatory, endlessly quotable. 8.25'' x 5.75''. Original blind-stamped grey boards, backed in black cloth with silver lettering to spine. In original unclipped dust jacket, designed by Susan Schwab, illustrated by Ralph Steadman. Black and white illustrations by Steadman throughout. [xii], 206, [6] pages. Jacket lightly toned, touches of rubbing and edgewear. Faint crease to front flap. Book has slight lean, tiny stain to top of textblock. Fading to top edge of boards, as common. Overall, sound. Housed in a matching clamshell box.