Writing from the Hunter S. Thompson Room, Seal Rock Inn, San Francisco
Another Dawn at Seal Rock Inn - Part Two
In July I spent a few days writing in the most famous room at one of the most famous motels in American literature, the Hunter S. Thompson Room at the Seal Rock Inn. Go here to read part 1, Another Dawn at the Seal Rock Inn.
Whereas Thompson had three weeks in room 305 of the iconic Seal Rock Inn, I have three days. Thompson had a stalwart editor, Alan Rinzler, to babysit him through the drug-fueled writing binge and push him past what Thompson described as “insoluble writer’s block.” I have only my husband, who promises to come by at night to check on my progress. And coffee: lots of coffee.
I’ve met Rinzler, back in the day when all of us Bay Area writer types were constantly crossing paths. I did a search for Rinzler’s name in my email and saw that we did a panel together at 826 Valencia back in 2008 with Andrew Sean Greer, Michelle Tea (here on Substack at Dear Diary), Ann Packer, and Ted Weinstein. I briefly considered poaching Rinzler’s email from that old exchange and asking if I could pay him to show up at my door and talk me into getting some writing done.
I’ve not hit writer’s block yet, but that’s because I haven’t started writing. When I do begin, I won’t be writing about politics. No, I’m here to write about love. Or something like it.
In 2024, San Francisco Chronicle reporter Christian Baba interviewed Seal Rock Inn general manager Robert Elam, whose father Larry started running the hotel in 1959 alongside his wife. Of Thompson, Elam tells Baba,
“He just needed a place to focus. We understood why he worked there. There was a desk facing the windows, that you can open and have the cool ocean breeze course through the room … you could smoke, hear the crashing surf.”
I too am here to focus, though the room these days, thank goodness, is non-smoking. I’m here to feel the cool ocean breeze. For more than a decade I’ve wanted to spend a couple of days writing here, and I’m just now getting around to it. But even though this is my first time properly spending the night, I was a frequent visitor to the Seal Rock Inn for years.