Funny, Strange, Random Pics

A while back in this thread, I posted about a friend who had Hunter S. Thompson shoot some books of his. I got some details wrong, so here is the full story from my friend:

"I’ve been a fan of the writing of HST for many years. Back in the early 80s I was investing in a lot of 1st editions of modern authors, including HL Mencken, Robinson Jeffers, Edward Abbey and HST. I thought Thompson was mostly a goofball, but the man could write, and I viewed him as one of the most inspired writers of the late 20th c. He had 2 big books, both with relatively small printings of the first edition, so I hit on the idea of trying to collect as many pristine first editions of those books as I could find, see if I could corner the market. I had an agent, a book dealer who lived nearby in Ojai, and he procured every pristine copy of Hell’s Angels and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas that he could find for me. I ended up with maybe 30 volumes, all fine or near fine, first editions in DJ. (Very few fine copies of those titles available, even in those days.)

About that time, my book dealer friend was hired by HST himself to catalog his books and papers. So he spent a lot of time at Thompson’s house in Woody Creek, CO, and of course he mentioned to HST that I was a serious collector of his early works. HST was notorious for seldom signing books, so I floated to him the idea of signing the books I had collected, and I suggested how cool it would be if HST shot a couple of them for me (he was a firearms freak). So I packaged up 20 books, as I recall, and shipped them to Woody Creek, where Hunter signed them and sent them back to me. He shot 2 of them, one of each title, big bullet holes blown right through the books, signed “shot with a 44 magnum at 100 yards, HST,” which is ridiculously funny if you know anything about firearms.

I’ve been offered a lot of money for them, but I still have them, one of the best investments I ever made, now insanely valuable."