Read Proud Highway:Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman Online
Authors: Hunter S. Thompson
Bent forward, far back on the seat, and a rigid grip on the handlebars as the bike starts jumping and wavering in the wind. Taillights far up ahead coming closer, faster, and suddenlyâzaappppâgoing past and leaning down for a curve near the zoo, where the road swings out to sea.
The dunes are flatter here, and on windy days sand blows across the highway, piling up in thick drifts as deadly as any oil slick â¦Â instant loss of control, a crashing, cartwheeling slide and maybe one of those two-inch notices in the paper the next day: “An unidentified motorcyclist was killed last night when he failed to negotiate a turn on Highway 1.”
Indeed â¦Â but no sand this time, so the lever goes up into fourth, and now there's no sound except wind. Screw it all the way over, reach through the handlebars to raise the headlight beam, the needle leans down on a hundred, and wind-burned eyeballs strain to see down the centerline, trying to provide a margin for the reflexes.
But with the throttle screwed on there is only the barest margin, and no room at all for mistakes. It
has to be done right â¦Â and that's when the strange music starts, when you stretch your luck so far that fear becomes exhilaration and vibrates along your arms. You can barely see at a hundred; the tears blow back so fast that they vaporize before they get back to your ears. The only sounds are wind and a dull roar floating back from the mufflers. You watch the white line and try to lean with it,â¦Â howling through a turn to the right, then to the left and down the long hill to Pacifica â¦Â letting off now, watching for cops, but only until the next dark stretch and another few seconds on the edge â¦Â The Edge.⦠There is no honest way to explain it because the only people who really know where it is are the ones who have gone over. The othersâthe livingâare those who pushed their control as far as they felt they could handle it, and then pulled back, or slowed down, or did whatever they had to when it came time to choose between Now and Later.
But the edge is still Out There. Or maybe it's In. The association of motorcycles with LSD is no accident of publicity. They are both a means to an end, to the place of definition.
David Amram
Joan Baez
Bob Braudis
Douglas Brinkley
William Burroughs
Johnny Depp
Donna Dowling
Wayne Ewing
Stacey Hadash
Hal Haddon
Laura Heymann
Abe Hutt
Don Johnson
William Kennedy
Lee Levert
Annie McClanahan
P. J. O'Rourke
Julie Oppenheimer
Beth Pearson
Curtis Robinson
David Rosenthal
Shelby Sadler
Madeline Sloan
Juan Thompson
Virginia Thompson
George Tobia, Jr.
Oliver Treibeck
Gerald “Ching” Tyrell
Townes Van Zandt
Jennifer Webb
Jane Wenner
Jann Wenner
Lawson Wills
Jennifer Winkel
Molly Wright
Warren Zevon
1955 |
“Open Letter to the Youth of Our Nation” |
“Security” |
“Night-watch” |
1956 | |
September 22 | To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell |
September 29 | To Virginia Thompson |
October 18 | To Elizabeth Ray |
October 24 | To Jack Thompson |
October 25 | To Ralph Peterson |
November 3 | To Henry Stites |
November 10 | To Sergeant Ted Stephens |
November 11 | To Gerald “Ching” Tyrrell |
November 18 | To Judy Stellings |
December 1 | To Porter Bibb III |
December 12 | To Rutledge Lilly |
1958 | |
January 2 | To Fred Fulkerson |
January 6 | To Lieutenant Colonel Frank Campbell |
January 9 | To Henry Eichelburger |
January 15 | To Carol Overdorf |
January 17 | To Sally Williams |
January 23 | To Virginia Thompson |
January 28 | To Captain K. Feltham |
January 29 | To Arch Gerhart |
February 17 | To Susan Haselden |
March 17 | To Kay Menyers |
March 18 | To Susan Haselden |
March 18 | To Kraig Juenger |
March 31 | To down beat magazine |
April 2 | To Sally Williams (including “Debt Letter”) |
April 13 | To Susan Haselden |
April 22 | To Hume Logan |
April 29 | To The New York Times |
May 1 | To Susan Haselden |
May 19 | To The Village Voice |
June 4 | To Ann Frick |
June 6 | To Larry Callen |
July 4 | To Larry Callen |
July 4 | To Kraig Juenger |
July 14 | To Larry Callen |
August 29 | To Ann Frick |
September 5 | To Ann Frick |
September 26 | To Paul Semonin |
October 1 | To Jack Scott, Vancouver Sun |
November 12 | To Susan Haselden |
November 22 | To Kraig Juenger |
December 7 | To Editor & Publisher |
December 19 | To Ann Frick |
1960 | |
January 14 | To Home (Virginia Thompson) |
January 15 | To Distribution Manager, Brown-Williamson Tobacco Company |
January 26 | To Sandy Conklin |
March 22 | To Angus Cameron, Alfred A. Knopf |
March 22 | To Ann Schoelkopf |
April 7 | To Sandy Conklin |
April 13 | To Davison Thompson |
April 17 | To Sandy Conklin |
May 25 | To Laurie Hosford |
July 2 | To Home (Virginia Thompson) |
July 16 | To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star |
July 24 | To Editor, Grove Press |
August 9 | To Virginia Thompson |
August 10 | To William J. Kennedy, San Juan Star |
August 17 | To Eleanor McGarr |
August 26 | To Eugene W. McGarr |
August 28 | To Eleanor McGarr |
September 11 | To The New York Times |
October 1 | To Sandy Conklin |
October 3 | To Sandy Conklin |
October 19 | To Eugene W. McGarr |
October 22 | To Editor, Time |
October 25 | To Mr. Dooley, San Francisco Examiner |
October 25 | To Abe Mellinkoff, San Francisco Chronicle |
“Down and Out in San Francisco” | |
October 28 | To Sandy Conklin |
November 15 | To Laurie Hosford |
December 8 | To J. P. Donleavy |
December 15 | To Abe Mellinkoff, San Francisco Chronicle |
December 23 | To Ann Schoelkopf |