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Author: Thompson, Hunter S. and Thomas W. Benton
Title: The American Dream: Aspen Wall Poster 4
Place Published: Aspen, CO
Publisher:Meat Possum Press, Ltd.
Date Published: 1970
Description: Large folio with two-color poster by Thomas W. Benton on front. 3 pages of text and ads by Hunter S. Thompson et al. Illustrated internally from photographs including the reprint of the controversial “Jilly“ nude from Evergreen Review. 57x40 cm (22½x15¾“).This copy with the circular blind stamp of Hunter Thompson‘s personal library at the bottom right corner. Present as well is a signed letter of provenance from Anita Thompson, Hunter‘s widow, on Owl Farm stationary, dated January 2021. The letter bears the blind stamp as well. Thomas W. Benton and Hunter S. Thompson‘s Aspen Wall Poster series combines literature and graphic design in a decidedly ‘gonzo‘ synthesis. Thompson provided the jeremiads, Benton the art, while the ‘Aspen Liberation Front‘ developed the ideology of ‘freak power‘ in the crucible of the ‘Battle of Aspen‘. Wall Poster #4 includes a rant against Sheriff, Whitmire, Thompson‘s rival in the run for Sheriff of Pitkin County of the same year. The title is “Aspen, Summer of Hate, 1970...Will the Sheriff be Killed?“ A scarce and wonderful Thompson piece, rare with the library stamp and letter of provenance. The poster draws its inspiration from the following quote from Clarence Darrow in 1920, “Gentlemen, nature works in a mysterious way. When a new truth comes upon the Earth, or a great idea necessary for mankind is born, where does it come from? Not from the police force or the prosecuting attorneys or the judges or the lawyers or the doctors; not there. It comes from the despised and the outcast; it comes perhaps from jails and prisons; it comes from men who have dared to be rebels and think their thoughts; and their fate has been the fate of rebels. This generation gives them graves while another builds them monuments, and there is no exception to it. It has been true since the world began, and it will be true no doubt forever.“

Fine.