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The Drug User: Documents 1840-1960

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A compilation of selections for those interested in drug use by historical figures. Features Anais Nin dropping acid, Sigmund Freud on cocaine, Mark Twain nearly becoming a coca trader, as well as the usual suspects (Hofmann, Baudelaire, Huxley, Ludlow) and others.

A documentary anthology focusing almost exclusively on writings by and about people using drugs before the 1960s -- before, as one of its editors states, "the modern era of drug use and drug hysteria." The sources collected within are excerpted from some of the more usual suspects, like Jean Cocteau, Aldous Huxley, Albert Hofmann, and Baudelaire, but there are also a few surprises (for example, Mark Twain and Sigmund Freud). The reader will come away with a newfound understanding of how unoriginal much of our present dialogue over similar issues actually is.

This mesmerizing collection of essays shows a wide range of ideas concerning drug use at a time when most drugs were still legal. The foreword is by William S. Burroughs, with an introduction by John Strausbaugh. Essays include examples by Jean Cocteau, Aldous Huxley, Albert Hofmann, Baudelaire, Anais Nin, and, believe it or not, Mark Twain and Sigmund Freud!