University of Florida journalism professor William McKeen has a new biography of journalist Hunter S. Thompson coming out this summer, ”Outlaw Journalist; The Life and Times of Hunter S. Thompson.”

In the book there is a chapter about the difficulties Thompson experienced while writing his book “The Curse of Lono.” It offers a fascinating glimpse at, of all things, the great author’s dining habits:

Ralph [artist and collaborator Ralph Steadman] kept sending illustrations and Hunter kept struggling to write, in Woody Creek and in Fairhope, Alabama. Tom Corcoran had retreated there from Key West, convinced that the island city was becoming too expensive and too dangerous a place to raise a child. [Author] Tom McGuane had successfully given up drink and drugs after leaving Key West and settling down in homes in Montana and Point Clear, Alabama. Hunter and Laila [Hunter’s then-girlfriend, Laila Nabulsi] thought Fairhope sounded like a good locale to finally put the Lono manuscript to rest.

Hunter and Corcoran had a standing appointment for a late breakfast every day at Julwin’s Southern Country Barbecue Restaurant. Hunter spread out his new Lono fragments over the table and ask Corcoran to help organize what he had. Corcoran read the latest material, while Hunter consumed his standard breakfast:

One pot of coffee
One Wild Turkey in a tumbler with only two ice cubes
Two bloody marys
Two large glasses of orange juice
Two Heinekens
Four pieces of toast
Four whole grapefruit
Six eggs
Eight sausage links

Hunter always said he liked the “highs” in his writing, the two or three paragraphs that had rhythm and music. The stuff in between just had to do the job of connecting the highs. A sustained piece of writing was okay, but he preferred the occasional brilliance that was worth waiting for, something that really stood out.

“The Curse of Lono” was a bunch of scenes in need of connection, but Hunter couldn’t find the narrative tissue and needed Laila and Tom Corcoran to help him assemble the book, which he had grown to dislike while he was working on it.

“I was outlining it for him,” Corcoran said of their spectacular breakfasts. “He’d written most of these scenes but they weren’t in any order.”

Hunter began to begrudge Ralph, feeling that his part of Lono had been easier, which allowed him to finish his work on the book well before Hunter. He also resented Ralph getting an equal byline on the book. With his apocalyptical, insane drawings, Ralph could lay claim to half of the genetic material of Gonzo, but around the time of Lono, Ralph began to feel that Hunter did not appreciate him professionally, while remaining his friend.

After reading that, I wondered if there was any significance to that particular menu.

“No,” McKeen told me by e-mail, “but I’ll ... put you in touch with the guy who sat across the table.”

That would be Tom Corcoran.

A novelist, songwriter (he penned the hit song ”Fins” with singer Jimmy Buffett, as well as such novels as ”The Mango Opera,” ”Gumbo Limbo,” ”Bone Island Mambo,” and the forthcoming “Hawk Channel Chase") and a collaborator with Thompson on an unproduced screenplay, he was a catalyst for the author while “Lono” was being written, McKeen says. Corcoran had moved to Fairhope, Ala. (from Key West, where he worked with Buffett and Thompson), and the author used to go visit him.

“He had a lot of trouble writing that book and Tom helped a lot with the organization,” McKeen says.

Reached by e-mail, I asked Corcoran about the significance of HST’s voracious breakfast consumption.

He replied:

Jeff:

As with much Hunter did when out in public, these breakfasts were part sustenance, part theater.

Julwin’s Restaurant was, perhaps, 30 yards from the central intersection in downtown Fairhope. Passers-by in the morning could look inside the huge front windows and see groups of local business owners and farmers in hitch-up overalls sipping coffee and passing time. The servers were not servers then, but waitresses - middle-aged veterans who’d seen it all. They were understandibly bemused by this tall man with the TarGard cigarette filters (Julwin’s didn’t ban smoking until 2006), the Hawaii 5-0 ballcap and the black Cigarette Racing Team jacket.

We must not ignore the fact that Hunter had borrowed a condo in Mobile — 40 minutes away — for a few weeks, plus the condo owner’s Cadillac.

So his arrival, most mornings, began with angle-parking a mile-long Sedan de Ville in front of the plate glass windows.

Hunter was drawn equally to Julwin’s good food and their liquor license.

He was an expert at ingratiating himself - always aware that he presented a spectacle of sorts.

So, part of placing such a huge breakfast order was for impact - to draw attention to himself. Part was to run up a huge tab so the owners appreciated his business and might better tolerate his presence. (While Fairhope was not a redneck town, this was the South where manners and attitude made a difference. Hunter’s manners, when required, could be impeccable. He was, after all, a Southerner.)

Part was because his breakfasts - anywhere - were celebrations, perhaps to salute his survival to a new day, or his ability to pay the tab. (Room service personnel at hotels always were amazed to find that the mass of food on the cart was for only one or two people.)

Anyway, HST quickly became a “regular” in Julwin’s - and the waitresses were quite charmed by his antics. They even gave him a Julwin’s - The Family Restaurant ballcap - essentially made him an honorary local.

As to the order of consumption, I don’t recall. Presumably hot stuff went first. The pacing was important, and the consumption spaced out over an hour or two. Not to forget - HST was a news junkie. In addition to all this food on the table, there was a morning paper (or two, or three) spread about.

On the opposite side of the table - I gently cajoled him into making decisions about our projects. Our project during his Mobile / Fairhope stay was “The Curse of Lono,” published first by Bantam in, I think, 1983. Later republished in the form it truly deserved by Taschen in 2005.

I ate a normal breakfast or, if I’d already eaten my first meal at home, something simple like a BLT. Maybe one beer or a bloody mary, but I’d never enjoyed drinking at mid-day.

Part of the reason he and I got along well was because I never tried to be a mirror-image of him. He never was comfortable with people who tried to “out-consume” him or instigate madness. He was a master procrastinator and one of my tasks was to nudge him toward deadline.

Hope all this helps.

Tom

I shared this e-mail conversation with McKeen, who then replied:

Apparently, Hunter would arrive with some of his liquor supply. That’s the story I got from Tom’s son, Sebastian, when I was talking to him about another matter last week.

Tom has a lot of brilliant and unseen photos of Hunter and seven will appear in my book. He is a great writer (I’ve read all of his novels and recommend them mightily) and a great photographer. And he also served Jimmy Buffett his first beer when he arrived in Key West as a struggling country singer.

Hunter’s friends mention breakfast as key to his work process. His assistant of 23 years, Deborah Fuller, told me it was the first of his daily rituals. By the time she went to work for him – around 1983 – his breakfast time was around 5 p.m., just after waking.

McKeen’s book comes out in July. He’ll be making a visit to Tampa’s Inkwood Bools during his promotional tour in early August. Keep an eye out for him when he rolls through town. McKeen is a great speaker and an expert on 1960s and 1970s pop culture. You can pre-order the Thompson book on Amazon.

Thompson died in 2005 from a self-inflicted gunshot. To get a whiff of Thompson’s public essence, here’s an interview he did with Charlie Rose. (The audio and video are not synched, so it’s a tad irritating):