Autograph letter, signed "Hunter S Thompson", to his friend Paul Semonin, with autograph envelope

Louisville, 1955. 4 pp., envelope postmarked Feb. 11, 1955. 1 vols. Small 4to. General light wear and toning to envelope; letter about near fine, with original folds. 4 pp., envelope postmarked Feb. 11, 1955. 1 vols. Small 4to. A candid letter from Hunter Thompson in February 1955, written to his friend Paul Semonin, when Thompson was seventeen years old. Semonin and Thompson were both members of the Athenaeum Literary Association, although, as Thompson hints in the letter, Semonin seemed to sit more easily with the prestige than Thompson did, as it brought Thompson in closer contact with Louisville's upper classes than he had been accustomed to as the (truncated) son of a widowed, working mother. (It was at the ALA that he began a friendship with Porter Bibb – mentioned in the letter a number of times – an investment banker and journalist who later became the first publisher of Rolling Stone at Thompson's behest.) Thompson had high academic hopes, and hints in the letter that he's planning to go to Sewanee, but, influenced by The Wild One and emboldened by his connection with Louisville society youths, he took to raising hell and was often in and out of trouble, culminating (at least in this era) with spending 31 days in jail, including the day of his high school graduation, as an accessory to robbery – a fate avoided by his coconspirators, who were the children of powerful lawyers. He was kicked out of the ALA after this, and never attended college, but joined the Air Force upon release from jail.

The letter shows Thompson taking a slightly repentant and deferential tone in writing to his older friend, Semonin, who was at Yale at time: "I appreciate your advice and your wanting to correct the error in my ways. Furthermore, I do realize my responsibility as Censor and I intend to live up to it. Anyway, constant trouble is beginning to get on my nerves and I think a change of atmosphere will do me good. I also took a good look at myself and decided that what I saw could stand quite a bit of improvement. All these factors, combined with what might happen to me if I don't straighten up, have convinced me that the straight & narrow is the best (if not the most enticing) path to follow for the time being."

Thompson shows himself already on shaky social ground with regards to the ALA: "As you know there are degrees of friendship and I've always felt that your friendship for me has been of a condescending nature, obligated by the ALA code, so to speak. Adding to this was the fact that ever since I've known you you've always seemed to have a Midas touch so far as accomplishment was concerned, while I was the "black sheep" of the Athenaeum." He discusses ambitious plans for publishing the Spectator, the ALA's publication of its members' work, and mentions having to testify against the man who sold him (and likely his ALA pals) alcohol: "to show the horrible cruelty of fate, I have to appear in court to testify against ABE for selling beer to minors. Me, his best customer. Ah, it racks my soul with sorrow."

Semonin would later tag along with Thompson in the Caribbean, while Thompson was working on the manuscript of what would become The Rum Diary, and was marooned in Bermuda with him for a time. Some of Thompson's letters to Semonin were published in the Proud Highway, but not this one, which is the earliest Thompson letter ever made available on the market. (Inventory #: 352929)