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…. 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…. 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…. The census claim that no contemporary UK edition exists is incorrect and has been corrected. 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.
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