Margaret A. Harrell - Keep This Quiet! : My Relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky, and Jan Mensaert

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Advance Reader Comments

Acknowledgments

Preface

Authors Note

Prologue: My Personal Myth

PART ONE

1 - The Top of the Stairs

PART TWO

2 - March in Paris

3 - Meeting Jean-Marie (Jan) Mensaert

4 - Meeting Milton Klonsky

5 - On a Downslope

6 - Meeting Hunter S. Thompson

7 - The Martyred Wizard in New York

8 - Hunter: Rendezvous in L. A.

9 - HST: The Red Ink Letters

10 - Jan Makes Noise, Milton Emerges

11 - Hunter in the Woods

12 - Hunter: Snake at R. H.

13 - Oscar Acosta

14 - The End of R. H.

15 - After Random House

16 - HST: The Outer Banks, Jean-Claude Killy

17 - The Tirlemont Syndrome

18 - Hunters Grain of Sand

Epilogue: How Its Working Out

Works Cited

Look for Volume II

Endnotes

Copyright 2011 by Margaret A. Harrell

All rights reserved.

To order in quantity at a discount, email orders@hunterthompsonnewbook.com

A particular thanks to Hunter Thompson Literary Executor Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University, for permission to reprint from the Hunter S. Thompson letters and other materials

Book Interior design by Bram Larrick of wakingworld.com

Digital conversion by KindleExpert.com

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harrell, Margaret A. (Margaret Ann).

Keep this quiet : my relationship with Hunter S. Thompson, Milton Klonsky, and

Jan Mensaert / Margaret A. Harrell. p. cm.

Volume 1

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-9837045-0-8 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-9837045-1-5 (e-book)

1. Thompson, Hunter S.Correspondence. 2. JournalistsUnited StatesBiography. 3. Greenwich Village (New York, N. Y.)Biography. 4. Thompson, Hunter S.Friends and associates. 5. Harrell, Margaret A.Friends and associates. I. Title.

E169.12.H37 2011

306/.1097309046dc22

2011909464

Saeculum University Press

5048 Amber Clay Lane, Raleigh, NC 27612

A division of Saeculum U. P. S.

B-dul Victoriei 5-7; 550024 Sibiu, Romania

I gulped itPuiana Harvey, C. G. Jung Institute Santa Fe

Entertaining and informative... This is a pleasure to read. I love the tone, which is a real achievementeven if it just came naturally George Stade, author of Equipment for Living: Literature, Moderns, Monsters, Popsters, and Us

Like a radio station with its own incomparable frequency, the inspiring book tunes readers receivers, sagaciously transporting them to... that quiet part of our psyche that knows no limitations or boundaries. Readers will experience new insights into the personal lives, talents, and the authors intimate relationships with Hunter S. Thompson, the father of Gonzo journalism and author of Hells Angels; Milton Klonsky, New York City poet and Greenwich Village cult figure with transformative word power and magnetic personality; Jan Mensaert, Belgian poet combining concepts of his music with his poetrythe man the author married. Readers will be privy to never-before-published letters from Hunter Thompson, deepening insight into the turning point in his career and emergence into gonzoBernie Nelson, The Mindquest Review

Margaret Harrell from early on had as her goal to live the most meaningful life possible. Three mentor/lovers helped in turn to light her way: Hunter Thompson for his ability to see the world for himself through as few distorting cultural lens as possible; Milton Klonsky for his deep wisdom and nurturing of the intelligence and sensitivity he saw within her; and the man she married, the Belgium poet Jan Mensaert, who sought out extreme experiences, encouraging her to come along and test her own limitsVirginia Parrott Williams, coauthor of Anger Kills and In Control; President, Williams LifeSkills

Beautiful in its directness and its opennessChris Van de Velde, Numenon Counseling Institute Director, Ghent, Belgium

Fascinating and riveting. So theres a sequel? In progress? What a story!!Mary Paul Thomas, Raleigh, NC

To Hunter, for energizing this book in obvious and unobvious ways

You can tell a lot about a person from whether he eats green or black olives.

Hunter, first meeting, 1967

Correspondence from Hunter is reproduced by permission of Hunter Thompson Literary Executor Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University. I gratefully acknowledge his support and his generosity with Thompson materials.

Permission to reprint a letter forty-four years old was kindly granted by Paul Krassner.

Permission to reveal David Pierces secret role in Hells Angels was kindly granted by Pierce.

Incalculable thanks to Virginia Parrott Williams, who tirelessly urged me to write in a fact-fat way, adding invaluable sharpness of insight and confidence in the book. A particular thanks to Jim Silberman for making possible my experience at Random House by his assignments, including Hunters first book, and his current insights. Many thanks to critical expertise from Noel Baucom. To William Kennedy for anecdotesand for putting me in touch with Rosalie Sorrels, who contributed stories and located Pierce. To William McKeen for encouragement. To the design team, Gaelyn Larrick for the cover, and Bram Larrick, for the interior, who knew just what the book needed. To my publisher, Didi-Ionel Cenuser. To Stacey Cochran, who edited the manuscript astutely. To Algonquin Executive Editor, Chuck Adams, for behind-the-scenes support. Finally, to all who played a role. And to Snoep, Snoepie, and Hans, my dachshundswho watched me write.

Photography Credits

Hunter S. Thompson: front cover self-portrait, courtesy of his Estate

Robert John: Milton Klonsky

Jameson Weston (Hogle Zoo, Salt Lake City): Eastern Indigo Snake

Dan Beards: Random House (old Villard House)

TrueBlood Studio, Greenville, NC: Margaret (child)

Jan Mensaert: slides (Morocco and Belgium), courtesy of Het Toreke museum/archives

Unknown: Margaret (New York)

Drawing/Design Credits

Jan Mensaert: courtesy of Het Toreke (scanned by Harrie Spelmans)

Music Lyric Credits

SHE HAS FUNNY CARS

Words and Music by MARTY BALIN and JORMA KAUKONEN Copyright 1967 (Renewed) ICEBAG CORP.

All Rights Reserved Used by Permission

TODAY

Words and Music by MARTY BALIN and JORMA KAUKONEN Copyright 1967 (Renewed) ICEBAG CORP.

All Rights Reserved Used by Permission

COMIN BACK TO ME

Words and Music by MARTY BALIN Copyright 1967 (Renewed) ICEBAG CORP. All Rights Reserved Used by Permission

AND I LIKE IT

Words and Music by MARTY BALIN and JORMA KAUKONEN Copyright 1967 (Renewed) ICEBAG CORP.

All Rights Reserved Used by Permission

How does the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, manifest in the world, if not through people? There are certain individuals who through their lives capture the Zeitgeist of their timesthey are people who pass into history as legendary figures. But they are also flesh-and-blood men and women who have a different impact on the world than the many others who stand by. The three men portrayed in this book are such men, inexplicably and inexorably driven to express the existential questions of their time. The Zeitgeist of the 60s was emerging through them. The postmodern. The deconstruction of the social norms that had prevailed until then.