Proud Highway:Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman (37 page)

November 25, 1959
Otisville, New York

Gentlemen,

Are you looking for a bowling writer, or a sportswriter? Your ad was a little confusing on this point.

If you're looking for a sportswriter, I'll be available on or about January first.

The enclosed clippings aren't quite up to date, but they should give you an idea of who I am, and how I write. During the past two years I've worked as an editorial trainee for
Time
magazine, and as a reporter for an upstate New York daily. At the moment, I'm working on a novel that should be finished by the first of the year.

It's a big jump from New York to Puerto Rico, but if life down there is as warm and easy as rumor would have us believe, then it might be worth the trip.

At any rate, please return my clippings when you answer the letter.

Sincerely,
Hunter S. Thompson

TO PHILIP KRAMER,
PUERTO RICO BOWLING NEWS
:

Not wanting to miss a chance to move to Puerto Rico, Thompson lied about his age in a successful maneuver to land a job with
El Sportivo,
a new English-language Puerto Rican sports weekly focused on bowling.

December 14, 1959
Otisville, New York

Dear Mr. Kramer:

You said you were leaving for New York in seven days and it took four of those for your letter to get to Otisville. I will make this brief, and try to get it in the morning mail, hoping it will get there before you leave.

I am single, an Air Force veteran, twenty-five, and definitely interested in talking with you about this job. I've been sports editor of two Florida weeklies, one Pennsylvania daily, and a command newspaper in the Air Force. More recently, I've worked as an editorial trainee for
Time
magazine, and as a general reporter for a New York (State) daily. For the past
nine months I've been writing a novel, most of which is now awaiting judgment at a New York publishing house.

You apparently misunderstood my remark about life being “easy” down there. Perhaps I should have said “warm and pleasant,” or something equally inane. In Florida, I was sports editor of two competing papers at the same time, sometimes working twenty hours a day—and I enjoyed it thoroughly. All I ask of any job is that it be challenging, satisfying and at least financially rewarding enough to keep me out of the bread-line.

I'd have to find out a little more about your plans before I could take any definite steps, but I'll wait till I see you in New York before I ask any questions. […]

Sincerely,
Hunter S. Thompson

TO ROBERT BONE
:

Shortly after Thompson was fired from the
Middletown Daily Record
reporter-photographer Bone also left to find a job in Manhattan. He wound up at the
San Juan Star.
By 1961 he was working at a financial magazine in Rio de Janeiro.

December 14, 1959
Otisville, New York

Robert:

Just finished reading your article in the
Record
(“Statehood or Status Quo”) and found it distinctly inferior to the report of the Red hearings. Who wrote that other one for you?

Pardon that jab. It's not the reason for this letter, but I figured you needed something to make up for all those compliments I tossed off in my last communication. Incidentally, the copy of the
Star
(front page editorial) that you sent up here was one hell of an improvement over the first one I saw. Looks like Kennedy might have shaken the Rotary Club influence.

But now to the point. There's a slim chance that I might hop down that way sometime soon, but I'm going to need a bit of information from you before I commit myself. A guy named Philip Kramer, editor-publisher of something called the
Puerto Rico Bowling News,
says he's starting a new monthly sports magazine down there (“similar in style to that of
Sports Illustrated”
)
and he's looking for sportswriters. He's located in Roosevelt, Puerto Rico, which I can't even find on the map. If you can answer the following questions for me and get the answers back by return mail, I will appreciate it no end—and may even stand you a few drinks if and when I get down there. At any rate, I have to see Kramer in New York next week and I hope you can get your reply to me before then. Send it c/o Murphy, 69 E. 4th St., Manhattan.

Here we go:

If you can think of any other pertinent information along these lines, by all means send it along. And once again, do
not
send your reply to Otisville. If you write
immediately,
and send it to New York, it should arrive about the same time Kramer does. And for god's sake, don't mention this to Kennedy (or anyone else at the
Star,
for that matter). If Kramer ever got wind of my dealings with the
Star,
he'd avoid me like the plague. As it is, I may have a chance of duping him into thinking I'm normal. The reason I'm writing you is that I don't want
him
to dupe
me.
So … thanks for any help you can give me. May see you sometime soon.

Cheers:      H

TO MARK ETHRIDGE, LOUISVILLE
COURIER-JOURNAL
:

Just before departing for Puerto Rico, Thompson had pitched a story idea to the editor of the Louisville
Courier-Journal.
Ethridge rejected the idea but asked Thompson to become his newspaper's Caribbean stringer. Thompson was thrilled at the prospect of seeing his byline in his hometown paper.

December 28, 1959
New York City

Dear Mr. Ethridge:

Last Derby day, while a whiskey-soaked throng of some 100,000 struggled to its feet for the annual Churchill Downs rendition of “My Old Kentucky Home,” six expatriate Louisvillians stood in front of a television set in a small Greenwich Village bar. And that night, there was a “Derby Party” on West 78th Street, about a hundred yards from the thug-infested woodlands of Central Park.

If this interests you, then read on. I think I've stumbled on a decent idea for a story for the
Courier-Journal:
the community of Louisville expatriates in Manhattan. No other city in the United States—and Paul Semonin and I have checked this out thoroughly—seems to have such a conspicuous and close-knit representation here. Offhand, I can think of nineteen people, all roughly the same age (ten boys and nine girls), who have either worked or lived here within the past year. I cite, as prominent examples, Paul and Debbie Newman at the Art Students' League, David Bibb publishing
IVY
magazine from an office in the Biltmore Hotel, Floyd Smith at Columbia, Tad Minnish and Buddy Hayes among the Beatnik set in Greenwich Village, Sally Spaulding working for
Time,
Olivia Smith working for an executive personnel agency on the East Side, Henry Eichelburger at an Army Intelligence (Russian Language) School, and Ralston Steenrod wheeling and dealing in the dark caverns of Wall Street and the Financial District.

At any rate, this should give you an idea of what I'm shooting at. These people are here for different reasons, most of them move in different circles, and all of them have their own reasons for leaving Louisville (some of them, for that matter, intend to return; and some don't). Actually, the only thing they have in common is that they comprise a sort of “Louisville colony” here in the middle of New York. I think it's a good story and I don't think you should pass it by.

As for terms, I leave that to you. I think you'll be fair. I can offer either a single shot (Louisville Expatriates in New York) or a series of contrasting interviews—with photographs of different apartments and pastimes. Naturally, I'd prefer whatever arrangement would bring me the most money. […]

Sincerely,
Hunter S. Thompson
c/o Dick Murphy
69 E. 4th Street
Manhattan

 

William J. Kennedy (right) with (left to right) Rear Admiral Daniel Gallery, commander of U.S. Navy base in Puerto Rico; Vice President Richard Nixon; and Luis Munoz Marin, governor of Puerto Rico.
(C
OURTESY
OF
HST C
OLLECTION
)

Thompson earned money while in Puerto Rico working as a male model.
(P
HOTO
BY
P
AUL
S
EMONIN
;
COURTESY
OF
HST C
OLLECTION
)

While in Puerto Rico, Thompson began taking photography seriously, selling many of his prints—such as this one—to San Juan travel magazines.
(P
HOTO
BY
H
UNTER
S. T
HOMPSON
;
COURTESY
OF
HST C
OLLECTION
)

Sandy Conklin—soon to be Thompson's wife—moved to Puerto Rico to live with him.
(P
HOTO
BY
H
UNTER
S. T
HOMPSON
;
COURTESY
OF
HST C
OLLECTION
)