Ron Whitehead sent me a “short review” of Keep This Quiet! Every word, I would like to frame. For whoever is interested, I posted it in the Keep This Quiet website! here – right at the top, under the new photo and lst paragraph.
There are many ways many paths open to us.
But truth is actually a pathless land – Ron Whitehead
Today I opened the B & N preorder page, and there it was: Ahead of Schedule – LIVE!! The price has gone up a few cents, to a 28% discount – still under $13.00.
But the big news is that Keep This Quiet! is available there for immediate delivery, three days ahead of the announced pub date of the 15th. I had visions of the very opposite happening because the book had popped up for preorder before there was even an Ingram account set up. Now the “magic” is continuing to work. And I thank everyone who preordered. You should have your copies in the mail this very minute, I suppose. And I’d love to hear what you think. Even, start a conversation about a question it raises. Hope I’m not biting off too much to chew, but in fact I love questions and discussions. And will try to find the answer if I don’t know it. Such as, today, someone asked me if I knew whether the lst and 2nd printings of Hell’s Angels were only 5,000 copies each. I don’t. But I know that one person might, Jim Silberman, and if/when I talk to him again, I will try to remember to ask. He does hold many memories in his very sharp, pictorial mind. I asked if he was going to write a book about his times with Hunter and he said no. So asking him is the only way to find out the things like that he might remember.
I am also curious what impression of him – that is, Jim - comes through in the book. I hope it is a very good one. And any response might help me set the focus in the sequel to Keep This Quiet 1, which will cover later years. But I can still address some things that raised interest or questions from earlier.
I started to call this post “Don’t Even Believe It When You See It.”
For whatever reason Keep This Quiet, which was live two days ago – ahead of the pub date – now reverted to preorder.
I predict that by mid-week it will be live on Amazon – still ahead of the pub date – with a competitive discount. And then B & N will go live – keeping its heavily discounted preorder price. Not to belabor the issue, but it was a surprise.
Meanwhile, I read Ron Whitehead’s Tribute to Hunter, which is more than a gem. Fascinating and bold statements of a poet.
Here’s the conclusion:
“Knowledge, from the inception of Modernism, and through post-modernism and chaos to The Ocean of Consciousness, is reorganized, redefined through Literature, Art, Music, and Film. The genres are changing, the canons are exploding, as is culture. The mythopoetics, the privileged sense of sight, of modern, contemporary, avant-garde cutting edge Nabi poets, musicians, artists, filmmakers are examples of art forms of a society, a culture, a civilization, a world, in which humanity lives, not securely in cities nor innocently in the country, but on the apocalyptic, simultaneous edge of a new realm of being and understanding. The mythopoet, female and male, the shaman, Hunter S. Thompson returns to the role of prophet-seet by creating myths that resonate in the minds of readers, myths that speak with the authority of the ancient myths, myths that are gifts from the shadow.”
He is going to receive a copy of Keep This Quiet! - hand delivered.
And we’ll see what he, who knew Hunter, thinks.
How about that “apocalyptic, simultaneous edge of a new realm of being and understanding.”
Anyone identify?