The dated correction proof of Hey Rube, preserving revisions to chapter titles and the Honor Roll, with Anita Thompson’s signed provenance letter.

THOMPSON, Hunter S. (1937–2005). Hey Rube. New York: Simon & Schuster, [2004]. Advance uncorrected reader’s proof in original yellow printed wrappers, with manuscript revisions and Anita Thompson’s signed letter of provenance.

The upper wrapper is inscribed “Author’s Correx copy” and dated “May 15 ’04”. This is a working copy of the book before publication, with changes to chapter titles and to the Honor Roll. Anita Thompson’s accompanying letter identifies it as an “uncorrected proof with notes by Hunter and also Anita”. ^[1–2]

The correction proof

The contents preserve an earlier arrangement of the collection. Chapters are numbered and dated beneath three part titles, “The Election”, “Bombs/September 11” and “Love & War”. The preliminaries retain “Acknowledgments TK” and “Dedication TK”, while the Author’s Note and “The Wisdom” carry placeholder page numbers. The publisher’s publicity leaf announces the book for August 2004 and gives an intended extent of 272 pages. That announcement describes the projected published book, rather than a completed collation of this proof. ^[1]

On contents p. ix, “Lawyers über Alles” is struck through and replaced by “White House disease”, and in no. 9 “Dollars” is replaced by “Weapons”. The phrase “über Alles” is deleted from no. 50, “The NFL über Alles”, on p. xi and from no. 81, “George Plimpton über Alles”, on p. xiii. The final chapter’s title, “Beware of the KC Chiefs”, is struck through in the contents and queried “new title?”. At the chapter head on p. 237 both lines of the printed heading are struck through and “Victory” is written above. ^[1]

The Honor Roll on p. 239, whose names include Muhammad Ali, Bob Dylan, Johnny Depp, George Plimpton, Ralph Steadman and Anita Thompson, is also corrected. “The Sheriff” is struck through and queried; an “R” is inserted into “Sue Carolan” beside a spelling query; Terry McDonnell’s name is queried; and an “M” appears beside Donald Corenman. These interventions preserve the practical work of revising titles and checking names at the proof stage. ^[1]

The revisions are in two hands and two media. The ink revisions, comprising the wrapper inscription, the new heading on p. 237 and the Honor Roll corrections, among them “The Sheriff” struck through in red, are attributed to Hunter S. Thompson. The pencil revisions in the contents are attributed to Anita Thompson. This division accords with her letter naming them both as annotators. ^[1–2]

The accompanying research compares the marked titles with the published book-club edition and the 2005 Simon & Schuster paperback, where the revised titles occur. That comparison has not been extended to an in-hand examination of the 2004 trade hardcover. ^[3]

The book

Hey Rube brings together Thompson’s ESPN.com columns, combining sport with political commentary on the opening years of the twenty-first century. The collection includes a foreword by John Walsh. Among the columns printed here is no. 31, “Fear and Loathing in America: Beginning of the End”, Thompson’s response to the attacks of 11 September 2001. This copy preserves the editorial stage through which those columns passed into book form. ^{[1, 4]}

Provenance

Owl Farm, Woody Creek, Colorado, according to Anita Thompson’s signed letter on Gonzo letterhead, which accompanies the proof. The letter states that the book comes directly from Hunter S. Thompson’s personal library and identifies the dated correction copy and the two annotators. Writing as his wife and the caretaker of Owl Farm, she affirms its authenticity. The publicity leaf bears the blind-embossed “Library of H.S.T. Hunter S. Thompson” seal. The provenance rests on the copy-specific signed letter; the seal is also used by the present Owl Farm store on literature it ships. ^{[1–2, 5]}

Physical description and condition

Octavo, approximately 235 mm tall, the text paginated to p. 239. Original yellow wrappers printed in black, the upper wrapper with the publisher’s advance-proof statement and loan notice, the lower wrapper printed “NONMERCH0684028239”. Publisher’s publicity leaf; title page with the Simon & Schuster imprint (New York, London, Toronto, Sydney); copyright page in the name of Gonzo International Corp., 2004, designed by Dana Sloan, with the number line 10 to 1 and ISBN 0-684-87319-2. With the signed provenance letter.

The spine near fine, with a small chip at the foot. A few minor stains, most likely from Thompson’s handling while annotating and working with the copy, as is typical of books from his personal library. Scattered small brown spots to the publicity leaf, with a small stain beside the seal, and to contents p. xiii, which has a creased lower outer corner. The provenance letter has two horizontal folds. Overall a near fine copy.

References

^[1] The present copy, wrappers, publicity leaf, title and copyright pages, contents pp. ix, xi and xiii, and pp. 87, 237 and 239, documented in the accompanying photographs.

^[2] Anita Thompson, signed Letter of Provenance, undated, accompanying the copy.

^[3] Hunter S. Thompson, Hey Rube, Book-of-the-Month Club edition, and New York, Simon & Schuster, 2005, paperback, compared through Internet Archive full-text search; Atelier Zweig research notes, September 2026.

^[4] Simon & Schuster, publication record for Hey Rube; the present proof’s publicity leaf.

^[5] Official Hunter S. Thompson Gonzo Store, “Books and Reading”, statement concerning use of the library seal, checked 11 October 2026.

Atelier Zweig · Item AZ-HST-HEY-RUBE-2004