NOTE: This story is a good example of the frustration many people
had, and still have, in trying to find Screwjack. I bought #162 for $175US in May 1998;
now they seldom go for less than that, and there is a leather bound volume, B, which is selling for
$2000US because it contains a Steadman scribble. Click
here for a scan of the cover and more info. --Christine O
From time to time I receive e-mail from HST fans asking about a book titled Screwjack.
People ask me how they can obtain a copy of the book. Usually I tell them that Screwjack
was never published, although Dr. Thompson did at one time contract to write the book.
I can find only two refernces to Screwjack in known Thompson literature. First, if you look on the
credits page of Better Than Sex, you'll see Screwjack listed among the books published
by HST. And then, in the Peter O. Whitmer biography of HST, When the Going Gets Weird,
the author makes reference to an unpublished work titled "The Screwjack Files"
The Screwjack Files were dumped in Palmer's lap. It was a pile of ocmputer paper with typing on it. She
was requested to read it out loud, with proper emphasis, which she proceeded to do with gusto...
Whitmer goes on to describe the work as sexually-explicit, which as everyone knows is most un-Thompson-like. Anyway, there is
no further mention of Screwjack in the Whitmer book or in the other three biographies of Thompson.
I have asked bookstores about its availability myself, and I have been told it has no ISBN number and, therefore, it can't be ordered through
a publisher.
And then, late last year, I saw an ad in an Internet classified from somebody purporting to have a copy of Screwjack
for sale. I made an inquiry, and I was told the price would be $195. I wrote back saying that I thought $195 was a ridiculous price.
"It's not ridiculous," the seller responded. "The book was issued four years ago at $150 and was sold out within
two weeks. There are only 300 of them [plus 26 are lettered A-Z and leatherbound for a total of 326]. This is a limited edition signed for collectors. Screwjack
was never issued as a regular edition." I find that hard to believe. After all, HSTknows quite well that he has a cult following and that
thousands of fans would be deslighted to shell out $25 each for a first-edition hardback of whatever he writes. Therefore, it boggles
my mind that he would publish a book in a 300[sic] copy press run. Sorry, but books published in limited editions don't attract
million-dollar advances, which HST is known to demand. Anyway, I wrote back to the seller that I wasn't interested in spending $195
for Screwjack. If you are interested, e-mail me and I'll give you the seller's e-mail address. i don't know if it's still available, and I don't even
know if it's genuine, but maybe one of you is willing to take teh risk. Not me.
