The literary archives of the late author William “Gatz” Hjortsberg, of Livingston, Montana, extensively document the life’s work of an important American novelist, screenwriter and Richard Brautigan biographer. In addition, these archives offer key insights into the evolution of the publishing and film-making industries over the course of the last fifty years, as well as the creative work and exploits of members of the so-called “Montana Gang” of writers, actors and musicians that gathered in southwest Montana’s Paradise Valley throughout the 1970s and ’80s.
The materials can be divided into five classes:
1) An exhaustive collection of manuscripts and drafts of all of his screenplays including those of the produced films Legend, The Georgia Peaches and Thunder and Lightning; those ultimately written by other screenwriters: Angel Heart (from his novel Falling Angel), Legends of the Fall, A River Runs Through It; and several unproduced screenplays and screen adaptations of novels – 25 distinct titles. There are also numerous related notebooks, scene cards, treatments, VHS tapes of produced films, correspondence and source materials. Items of particular note include a film treatment co-written with Peter Fonda, a screen adaptation of Hjortsberg’s novel Alp by Randy Quaid, production ephemera from Legend (including behind the scenes photos of Tom Cruise and other actors and small set pieces), and Hjortsberg’s adaptions of novels by Richard Brautigan, Jim Harrison, Norman Maclean and Andrew Neiderman. [approx. 15 boxes, at 16” x 12” x 10” each]
2) A similar collection of materials (notebooks, manuscripts, drafts, correspondence and research) concerning Hjortsberg’s novels, Alp (1969), Gray Matters (1971), Symbiography (1973), Toro! Toro! Toro! (1974), Falling Angel (1978), Tales & Fables (1985), Nevermore (1994), Mañana (2015), and the posthumously-published sequel to Falling Angel, Angel’s Inferno, as well as numerous drafts and notes for the unpublished novels Blood Saga, Kronos Rex, The Magic Twanger, The Shadow Knows and Sometimes Horses Don’t Come Back, as well as extensive files of short fiction and poetry. [approx. 8 boxes]
3) The complete research, drafts, correspondence, interview tapes and transcripts, photography, ephemera, books, magazines, news clippings, contracts, etc. for Hjortsberg’s 20-year odyssey of writing the definitive biography of his long-time friend and colleague, Jubilee Hitchhiker: The Life and Times of Richard Brautigan. Some high points include tapes and transcripts of interviews and miscellaneous correspondence with Jim Harrison, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley, Terry McGovern, Ishmael Reed, Michael McClure, Peter Coyote, Tim Cahill, Seymour Lawrence, Guy de la Valdene, Tom McGuane, Ken Kelley, Rip Torn, Beef Torrey, and dozens of other luminaries connected to Brautigan; numerous original periodicals featuring work by and about Brautigan; handwritten notes, letters and postcards; and Hjortsberg’s reading copy of Jubilee Hitchhiker with notes and corrections. [approx. 11 boxes]
- Correspondence with other writers, artists, film-makers and colleagues, as well as his fans. Notebooks, journals, travel logs, daily record books and miscellaneous ephemera. Items of note include well-organized letters to and from Hjortsberg’s literary, art and film colleagues including Jim Harrison, Phil Caputo, Tom McGuane, Jack Gilbert, Bruce Conner, Kiki Sammarcelli, Guy de la Valdene, Stanislaw Lem, Peter Fonda, Terry Jones, George Plimpton, Dan Gerber, Charles Levendosky, Gary Snyder, Bob Datilla, Peter Bowen, Pete Najarian, and numerous others; a card file of Hjortsberg’s extensive personal library; and daily diaries covering 1980 to 2016 where Hjortsberg faithfully records meetings, parties, lunches and discussions with other writers and film people, amounts spent at such events, as well as purchases of items ranging from works of art and wedding presents to Salvation Army books and motor oil (includes the entry for Sept. 11, 2001: “back to LionHead [his cabin on the West Boulder River], bought gas, $11.49 (Visa), terrorist attack, World Trade Center destroyed, Lorca & Robert safe, thank God!”). [approx. 18 boxes]
- Exhaustive tax receipts and records for Hjortsberg and his screenwriting company, Greenhorn, Inc., covering the years 1964 through 2017, plus extensive contracts, negotiation correspondence and other financial documents for both fiction and screenwriting. [approx. 23 boxes]
William Reinhold “Gatz” Hjortsberg was born on February 23, 1941 in New York City, to immigrant parents: his father Helge, a Swedish merchant sailor and later restauranteur, and his Swiss-born mother Ida. He received a Bachelor’s of Art degree in English from Dartmouth in 1962, and then attended Yale Drama School, where he met fellow-author Tom McGuane. Hjortsberg and McGuane both received Stegner Fellowships to Stanford University, but before starting the program, Hjortsberg and his then-wife Marian, travelled extensively in Europe and Central America. He published shorter pieces in several magazines before publishing his first novel, Alp, in 1969. Eventually, he and McGuane both moved to Livingston, Montana, and became the center of the so-called Montana Gang, a revolving cadre of writers, actors and musicians that also included Richard Brautigan, Tim Cahill, Warren Oates, Peter Fonda, Jimmy Buffet, J.D. Reed and others. Hjortsberg is perhaps best known for his supernatural noir novel Falling Angel (filmed as Angel Heart, starring Mickey Rourke, Lisa Bonet and Robert De Niro), as well as the screenplay for the fantasy film Legend (starring Tom Cruise). Both of these films were directed by Ridley Scott. Hjortsberg also worked with Roger Corman, co-wrote a film treatment with Peter Fonda and wrote adaptations of works by Richard Brautigan, Jim Harrison, and Andrew Neiderman. Hjortsberg’s novels run the gamut of dark comedy, noir, fantasy, science fiction, horror and murder mystery, peopled by characters on the edges (of civilization, of sanity, of reality, etc.). The term that has been used to best describe his work is “Slipstream,” a between-the-boundaries genre defined by Bruce Sterling as “a kind of writing which simply makes you feel very strange; the way that living in the twentieth century makes you feel, if you are a person of a certain sensibility.” His friendship with Richard Brautigan, enigmatic author of the cult classics Trout Fishing in America and In Watermelon Sugar, led to a 20-year project of researching and writing the definitive Brautigan biography and exploration of his times, Jubilee Hitchhiker. Hjortsberg was meticulous in preserving his archival material, providing great insight into his own writing as well as that of his numerous friends and colleagues, as well as the evolution of the workings of both the film and publishing industries. He passed away in 2017.
Contact Andrea or Marc at Elk River Books for more information.
Offered by Elk River Books
$100,000.00
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