RALPH STEADMAN (b.1936, illustrator) – HUNTER S. THOMPSON (1937-2005)
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ’72. San Francisco: Straight Arrow Books, 1973.
First edition of Hunter S. Thompson’s account of the 1972 Democratic presidential campaign, signed and mischievously annotated by his long-time collaborator, Ralph Steadman. For his classic work of campaign journalism – based on a series of articles for Rolling Stone, which charted Nixon’s re-election against the splintering of the Democratic party – Hunter S. Thompson called again upon the British illustrator Ralph Steadman, whose jagged, inky lines had brought to life Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas in all its provocative, grotesque glory and with whom he would go on to work for decades. Here, Steadman revisits 38 of the pages: in total, 62 words of wry commentary have been added, but the majority of the additions are in the form of illustrations in permanent marker. Sketches of brooding faces are added and a number of the book's printed illustrations and photographs have been augmented, sometimes with horns or moustaches.

Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in white, pictorial dust jacket (edges and corners a little bumped).

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