Kurt Vonnegut
As Ralph Steadman wrote in his email to me yesterday “Like your beloved Hunter- there goes another original"………using Kurt’s often used phrase: ‘Life is no way to treat an animal…’”
Ralph sent a drawing that he did of Kurt as an etching because Kurt said “I ain’t no oil painting.” ( I’m sorry, but for some reason I’m having difficulty downloading it, but will get it up ASAP.)
Here is a note that Hunter wrote to Mr. Vonnegut on June 28, 1973.
Kurt…
I’ve been meaning to send you a note about your review (in Harper’s) of my Campaign ’72 book ever since Russ Barnard told me about it on the phone about 3 months ago. As you’ve doubtless seen, Straight Arrow has used your words mercilessly ever since – and I suppose I should apologize for that, because it seems a bit greedy & grasping. For good or ill…although in retrospect the “ill-factor” seems negligible.
Only the intent, eh? Like Nixon.
Anyway, I thought I should tell you that I have about 500 reviews of my books lying around the house, here (most of them astoundingly positive, for all the wrong reasons), but if I had to pick an epitaph, right now, out of all that gibberish – the one paragraph that cuts through it all & comes closest to what I’d like to think I was saying was your closing graph in the Harper’s review – inre: “Hunter Thompson’s Disease.”
No point jabbering any further about it, except to emphasize the good, high feeling that came on me when I read it.
I was planning to have a drink with you in Miami, but things got weird. Maybe we can make a human connection when I come east in mid-July to have a look at the Watergate situation….
…Okay for now. In closing, let me assure you that my health – at least for the moment – is extremely good, on paper. I just went through a total physical examination , and the doc was baffled at the lack of ominous signs, symptoms, etc. The findings seem to insult everything he spent 12 years learning……Which gives me a boot, of sorts, but as a Doctor I know better. He just hasn’t found the right combination of tests, yet. The D. Gray syndrome is not in his books.
Which gives me a bit more time, if nothing else. If you drift west, let me know in time to invite you to pass some time out here on the Owl Farm. Meanwhile, thanx again for the good eye & good instinct.
— Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in America
Until next time, your friend,
Anita Thompson
p.s. check out the nytimes blog re: Hillary. I must say, I love Obama, but I am leaning more and more toward Hillary every day.
