Keep This Quiet!
My Relationship With Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky, and Jan Mensaert
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5.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $5.99
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- $5.99
Publisher Description
Keep This Quiet! brings alive the cutting-edge moment of Hunter Thompson’s career, when it took off. Harrell, who was his copy editor on Hell’s Angels, rescued his letters to her from the dustbin of history. Through them she recounts a missing chapter in his life that - incredibly - up till now is off the radar screen. Martin Flynn, the owner of http://hstbooks.org, calls it "A Feast for the Gonzo Soul." Also in Keep This Quiet! are priceless reminiscences of some of Hunter's oldest friends: William Kennedy, David Pierce, Rosalie Sorrels, and editor Jim Silberman - covered in no other account. And letters to her from the satirist Paul Krassner and Dr. Gonzo (Oscar Acosta). Featured in addition are "poete maudit" Jan Mensaert and Greenwich Village "poet genius" Milton Klonsky.
William McKeen, author of Outlaw Journalist, says to "keep your eyes peeled for this new book by Margaret Harrell. Hunter often said she was the best editor he ever worked with and they were close friends." The Midwest Book Review calls it “a moving read and much recommended to any literary studies or memoir collection." Isabel Escobar writes: "Harrell's writing is crisp and easy to follow. I found it nearly impossible to put the book down."
"While the job at Random House did offer her the opportunity to meet a lot of writers and famous people, it is Hunter that became her secret office romance. The two start a correspondence within letters and long distance phone calls that morphs from a concealed passion into a long-term friendship. Keep This Quiet! is a book about a woman's life and her loves, determination, and discovery. . . . Every person in the book is bold and well defined" - San Francisco Book Review.
"Harrell beautifully tells the story of how her relationships with the three men, predominantly Thompson, progressed, sharing intimate moments and keeping the reader turning the page" - Portland Book Review.
Poet Ron Whitehead calls it a “masterpiece” (Facebook).
The iPad edition has 27 illustrations, including many in-color humorous sketches Hunter created to sign his letters - available nowhere else.
Customer Reviews
Keep This Quiet
Memoir can be so intimate a narrative form. Margaret Harrell's story is intimate and revealing, as she shares with the reader her affair with HST and details of his early writing career. Her writing surprises with turns of phrase and paragraphs that unfold in unexpected ways. Her aliveness and depth of experience come through. As the copy editor of HST's first works and a fine writer herself, she recounts their unique relationship from a feminine perspective, different, I think, from other women he knew, and further different from the male perspective which has been more commonly reported. She contributed to HST's initial success in bringing his words to print, a task for which I am personally grateful. She extends her unique insights into two other relationships she recounts with the poet Milton Klonsky and the poet-artist Jan Mensaert.
The book recaptures the intellectually rich revolutionary spirit of the period 1963 to 1970 of which we hear much about but today find elusive to actually enter (or reenter). What I missed of that then is in some measure gained as this book invites the reader into her experience in the literary heart of The Revolution. The rarefied ether of her emotional world surrounds the three men of genius Margaret was involved with and the volatility of their collective egos on her is formative in her life's search for meaning, love, and deep inner peace. A memoir this sensitive and well written is a gem.