TLS signed in pencil, “Hunter” and "HST," one page, 8.5 x 11, Time letterhead, September 6, 1958. Letter to Paul Semonin, his childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky. In part: "The egalitarian haste of the modern american negro will put us all in the grave: all in the same grave, of course, and with only one layer of bodies—so that no one shall be either higher or lower than anyone else in the final worldly reckoning. I trust that this letter will find you in a frenzy of spine-snapping patriotism: and what indeed is this strange and vicious malady which causes all our guilt-riddled, pot-bellied young men to run off to the halls of Montezuma? I suppose you'll be at Quantico—I was there once and the food was intolerable…But the queers in Washington are predatory as hell and they seem to have a strange hankerin' for those firm and khaki-flavored young bodies which come pouring in across the Potomac every weekend. I think they're pushing this 'democracy' thing too far when they insist that all of us—men and women alike—have the same sexual tastes. It gives a man paws…I seriously thought you might have gone over to something subversive like Zen or Dadaism or something even worse like the cult of the superman. But I see that it's just the USMC…Man, you must use the USMC in order to further your artistic deviations. The service can be USED in many ways. It is ripe, literally bulging with ignorance, apathy and galloping myopia…snap a spine for me: I missed that sort of thing." Thompson adds his initials and address, "57 Perry St., NYC," in the lower left. In fine condition.
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