Hachych, First Edition (2 results)

Octavo, ms. inscription on title; in the original printed yellow wrappers. Presentation copy of the very rare first edition of this utopian hymn to hashish. In the early 1840s the French psychiatrist Moreau had begun studying the possible therapeutic applications of hashish, in the process installing himself as purveyor to the famous Club des Hachichins, an elegant coterie presided over by author and dilettante Gautier. But it fell to the well-known surgeon and republican socialist Lallemand to write the first European work to use the drug as its basic plot device. The work purports to be a translation from an Arabic manuscript which the author has discovered in his cabin whilst sailing for Marseille. It veers between the sensational and the doctrinal, particularly in its fundamental conceit that hashish not only provides consolation for the present, but an intimation and aspect of the future. This copy is inscribed by Lallemand to "Monsieur Breton", in distinctive sepia ink, with a flourish that zig-zags across the word Hachych: this must be a deliberate echo of the closing lines of the novel: 'Il n'existe, d'ailleurs, d'autre trace de signature qu'un énorme zigzag allant jusqu'au bas de la page, et annoncant, selon toute apparence, un violent désir de s'étendre sur le matelas dont il a été parlé.'. The book had some success and was republished in 1848 almost identically, but with the extra title Révolutions Politiques et Sociales. . A couple of dampstains in margins at start, worn at spine otherwise a fine copy.

First edition. First edition. Signed by Claude Francois Lallemand on the title page, inscribed with a flourish on his signature that zig-zags across the word "Hachych," which alludes to the closing lines of the novel: "Il n'existe, d'ailleurs, d'autre trace de signature qu'un énorme zigzag allant jusqu'au bas de la page, et annoncant selon toute apparence, un violent désir de s'étendre sur le matelas don't il a été parlé.". 230 pp. Bound in publisher's original yellow wraps. Very Good with light soiling and staining to wraps, a little chipping and curling at extremities, slight roll to spine, contents foxed, half title apparently glued to verso of front wrap, uncut. Rare. A utopian hymn to hashish, first published anonymously in 1843. It purports to be a translation from an Arabic manuscript that the author discovered in his cabin while sailing for Marseille. Lallemand was one of the first people in France to take hashish and submitted his thesis on the subject for the Doctor of Medicine degree in 1839. This copy belonged to noted authority on drugs and hallucinations Ronald K. Siegel, who wrote about this unusual book and possible precognition in hashish-inspired hallucinations: "Hashish provided Lallemand with a utopian vision of the future that was uncannily accurate in many detailed facts. For example, in one hashish experience he wrote: '[I] arrived in America by way of California. I crossed the Rocky Mountains on a railway, then over the Great Lake. I was present at the recognition of two new states, those of Wisconsin and Iowa, which ceased being simple territories in order to become stars of the Union. I was one of the first to pass through the Panama Canal. Finally after visiting the Cape of Good Hope, Timbuctu, and the Mountains of the Moon, I journeyed down the White Nile and saw the cataracts' (see Kimmens, 1977, p. 122). The above passage was written during a hashish experience in 1843. The railroad did not cross the Rockies until 1869; Iowa joined the Union in 1846, Wisconsin 1848; and the Panama Canal, not even begun until 1881, was finished in 1914. The Mountains of the Moon were not explored until the next century. These apparent "precognitive" and/or "prophetic" visions have been reported for other NDEs [near-death experiences]" (Siegel and Hirschman, Hashish Near-Death Experiences pp. 73-74). A Horowitz high spot and a major work in the literature of drugs and hallucinations.