Opium, the Arts, and America (Collected Works of Fitz Hugh Ludlow, 5)

Literary Nonfiction. Art. Fitz Hugh Ludlow's non-fction essays, travelogues and criticism ranged widely in subject matter. His sketches of Florida depict it months before the Civil War, his theatre and musical criticism highlight early stars of the New York stage, and he later returned to the subject of drugs, as both a student and a sufferer of the opium habit.

Fitz Hugh Ludlow (1836-1870) was an American writer of travelogues, short stories, novels, art criticism, science and drug literature related to hashish and opium cures. He is mostly known for THE HASHEESH EATER and Across the Continent, his description of and Overland Stage journey with the painter Albert Bierstadt. His friends and acquaintances ranged from Mark Twain to Brigham Young to Walt Whitman, and he was an integral part of the creation of the Bohemian scene in New York City.