396:âŚit is evident that Ludlow recognized, with remarkable insight, most of the characteristic subjective effects of cannabis. He also noted, and interpreted essentially correctly, such pharmacological points as the relation of dose to effect, inter- and intra-individual variations in response, and the influence of set and setting. Most importantly, perhaps, he recorded the development of his dependence on cannabis more comprehensively and astutely than anyone to date. The initial motives â including features of his own personality and temperament â the constant rationalization, compulsive use despite obvious untoward effects, the progression to a state of almost continuous intoxication, the inability to reduce his dose gradually, and the intense craving and depression after abrupt withdrawal, all are clearly described. Ludlow recognized also the lack of physical symptoms during withdrawal, and the difference from opium withdrawal in this respect.
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the differentiation between the hallucinatory process and the affective reactions to it, the relation between spontaneous and drug-induced perceptual changes, the similarity between the effects of cannabis and those of other hallucinogens, the attempts at drug substitution therapy (opium, tobacco), and the role of psychotherapy and abreactive writing, are all in keeping with contemporary thought. These points permit the modern reader to feel even greater confidence in the extraordinary accuracy and perceptiveness of Ludlowâs record.
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224:? Why, Sir, I possess it upon mine own shelves; and wou'd not part with it for any inducement whatever! I have frequently reread those phantasmagoria of exotic colour, which proved more of a stimulant to my own fancy than any vegetable alkaloid ever grown and distilled. The reeling panoramas out of space and time have an unmistakable tinge of authenticity, and even the metaphysical speculations were far from arid."
325:, was perhaps the first to express skepticism at Ludlowâs âaddictionâ story, noting that âo one seriously interested in the effects of drugs on the mind should fail to read Ludlowâs book,â but accusing Ludlow of a âhypertrophy of the imagination and an excessive dependence on the works of De Quinceyâ (although he also found
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Vol. 1 (1908) p. 47. The quote comes from Rev. J. H. Gilmore: âOn one occasion, at least, his enthusiasm for literature was carried to excess. âThe
Hasheesh Eaterâ had recently appeared (1857) and Johnny must needs experiment with hasheesh a little, and see if it was such a marvelous stimulant to the
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dated 2 January 1859, in which he says âThe city of
Wayland⌠is shrined in my memory as a far-off mystical Eden where the women were lovely and spirituelle, and the men were jolly and brave; where I used to haunt the rooms of the AthenÌum, made holy by the presence of the royal dead; where I used to
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went through four editions in the late 1850s and early 1860s, each put out by Harper & Brothers. In 1903, another publishing house put a reprint of the original edition — and the last complete edition until 1970. As of 2006, two editions are in print, including an annotated version first
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With the benefit of hindsight, we can also identify in Ludlowâs account a number of other features consistent with present knowledge, but which even scientists of his day could not possibly have known. For example, the initial change in tolerance, the continuum between euphoria and hallucinations,
260:
After the prohibition of marijuana, the writings of Ludlow were interpreted by two camps. On the one hand, there were the prohibitionists, who pointed out Ludlowâs addiction to âhasheeshâ and his horrifying hallucinations; on the other, those who believed that cannabis deserved a second chance and
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as the place âwhere I used to eat
Hasheesh and dream dreams.â And a classmate recalls that after reading Ludlowâs book, Hay âmust needs experiment with hasheesh a little, and see if it was such a marvelous stimulant to the imagination as Fitzhugh Ludlow affirmed. âThe night when Johnny Hay took
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Ludlow said, "The entire truth of Nature cannot be copied," so "the artist must select between the major and minor facts of the outer world; that, before he executes, he must pronounce whether he will embody the essential effect, that which steals on the soul and possesses it without painful
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It was Ludlow⌠who contributed the most remarkable description of the hashish effects. He not only described the acute hashish episode with great intensity and fidelity but recorded the development of an addiction and the subsequent struggle which resulted in his breaking the habit. As an
293:), criticized Ludlowâs later attempts at fiction, writing that his short stories âare today stale and meaningless⌠echoes of all the other magazine stories of his time, originating in literature, not in life, and conducted with no regard for truth and with little for verisimilitude.â In
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is a sincerity, a reality, which he could not recapture when he tried to construct stories solely from his imagination⌠He finds lyric phrasing to convey the unearthly beauty of his visions, and the unearthly horror of the evil fantasia which succeeded his bliss. He is a drugged
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the next great commentator on the phenomenon of hashish was the irrepressible Fitz Hugh Ludlow. This little-known bon vivant of nineteenth-century literature began a tradition of pharmo-picaresque literature that would find later practitioners in
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to be âmore lively and more colorful reading than⌠the grossly overrated confessions of that âEnglish opium-eater.ââ). DeRopp suspected that âin many places scientific impartiality has been sacrificed in the interests of literary effect.â
135:
analysis, or the separate details which belong to the geometrician and destroy the effect." Many of his passages, which may have seemed like fantastic myth-making to his contemporaries, ring true today with more modern knowledge of the
249:. Using the pseudonym Oliver Haddo, Crowley also wrote at length about his own cannabis experiences, comparing and contrasting them to those of Ludlow. He âwas struck by the circumstance that , obviously ignorant of
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and released by Level Press. By the late 1970s, you could even find the face of Fitz Hugh Ludlow on a T-shirt, thanks to his alma mater Union
College, which had thrown a âFitzhugh Ludlow Dayâ celebration in 1979.
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user as one who is reaching for "the soulâs capacity for a broader being, deeper insight, grander views of Beauty, Truth and Good than she now gains through the chinks of her cell." Conversely, he says of
194:, many cities in the United States had private hashish parlors. And there was already controversy about the legality and morality of cannabis intoxication. In 1876, when tourists could buy hashish at the
84:
extract. In the United States, the book created popular interest in hashish, leading to hashish candy and private hashish clubs. The book was later popular in the counter-culture movement of the 1960s.
333:
At this point in time, there occurred a resurgence of interest in marijuana in the United States and the emergence of psychedelics in the
English-speaking world as a whole. Researchers, like pioneering
732:⌠There is in Ludlowâs cannabis reportage a wonderful distillation of all that was zany in the Yankee transcendentalist approach. Ludlow creates a literary persona not unlike the poet John Shade in
139:
state. Ludlow writes of one hallucination: "And now, with time, space expanded also⌠The whole atmosphere seemed ductile, and spun endlessly out into great spaces surrounding me on every side."
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in reverse, descending from the
Paradiso to the Inferno. His descriptions, drawing from his subconscious a strange mingling of the sublime and the grotesque, often suggest the work of
603:
imagination as
Fitzhugh Ludlow affirmed. âThe night when Johnny Hay took hasheeshâ marked an epoch for the dwellers in Hope College. Itâs fifty-six years ago; but I remember it well.â
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on hashish. There is a wonderful charm to his free-spirited, pseudoscientific openness as he makes his way into the shifting dunescapes of the world of hashish.â
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on hashish. There is a wonderful charm to his free-spirited, pseudoscientific openness as he makes his way into the shifting dunescapes of the world of hashish.â
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314:. The writerâs passion gives his work an intensity which the reader recognizes and sympathetically feels. This is a very considerable literary achievement.
736:âs Pale Fire, a character who allows us to see deeper into his predicament than he can see himself. Part genius, part madman, Ludlow lies halfway between
436:, and who regularly praised Ludlow in his books, saying Ludlow âbegan a tradition of pharmo-picaresque literature that would find later practitioners in
381:
380:
By this time Ludlow had been rediscovered, both by mainstream researchers into drugs and addiction, and by the growing drug-savvy counterculture.
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led to interest in the drug it described. Not long after its publication, the Gunjah Wallah Co. in New York began advertising "Hasheesh Candy":
342:, looked to Ludlowâs seminal writings on the psychedelic experience for insight on the new drugs that were being discovered and synthesized.
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The
Arabian "Gunjh" of Enchantment confectionized. â A most pleasurable and harmless stimulant. â Cures Nervousness, Weakness, Melancholy,
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and the sentimentalistsâ but admired Ludlowâs âwonderful introspectionâ and printed significant excerpts from the book in his journal
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selected the alumnus Fitz Hugh Ludlow as a âUnion Worthyâ and invited three academics to compose speeches for the occasion.
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In 1938, shortly after the federal government cracked down on marijuana, the prohibitionist warning was carried in the book
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pay furtive visits to Forbesâ forbidden mysteries (peace to its ashes!), where I used to eat
Hasheesh and dream dreams.â
195:
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Ludlowâs writings crop up in a couple of places in pre-marijuana-prohibition 20th century
America. The occultist
80:
describing the author's altered states of consciousness and philosophical flights of fancy while he was using a
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216:. In a 1927 letter to Bernard Austin Dwyer, Lovecraft declared the influence of Ludlow's writings on his own:
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Kalant, O.J. âLudlow on Cannabisâ The International Journal of the Addictions 6(2) June 1971, pp. 309-322
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576:(William Roscoe Thayer, 1916) the quote is given but not referenced to a specific letter. John Hayâs
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edited by David Solomon. In 1970, a reprint of the 1857 edition was put out by Gregg Press, and the
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saw Ludlow as a literate chronicler of the mystical heights that could be reached using the drug.
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autobiography of a drug addict it is, in several respects, superior to De Quincey's âConfessionsâ
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users: "Ho there! pass by; I have tried this way; it leads at last into poisonous wildernesses."
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would write about âThe Secret Dissipation of New York Belles⌠a Hasheesh Hell on Fifth Avenue.â
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In the 2000s, Ludlow has been introduced to a new generation of psychedelics users through
171:
Inspires all classes with new life and energy. A complete mental and physical invigorator.
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doctrines, yet approximately expressed them, though in a degraded and distorted form.â
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v. 1, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916, p. 47; see also Thayer, William Roscoe
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Haddo, Oliver (pseud. for Crowley, Aleister) âThe Psychology of Hashishâ
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remains Ludlow's most remembered work. Only one other of his books,
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Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1976 (originally published in 1938)
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Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge
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for a set of tapes (âVictorian Tales of Cannabisâ) put out by
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hasheeshâ marked an epoch for the dwellers in Hope College.â
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to be a remarkable description of the effects of cannabis:
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563:(edited by Horowitz, M., Level Press: San Francisco, 1975)
444:.⌠Part genius, part madman, Ludlow lies halfway between
416:, and a well-annotated and illustrated version edited by
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ad reproduced on page 201 of the Level Press edition of
289:(who would later include his impressions in his book
268:. The book included several pages of excerpts from
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693:New York: Dell 1976 (originally published in 1957)
466:, has seen a new edition since the 19th Century.
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190:Within twenty-five years of the publication of
578:A Poet in Exile: The Early Letters of John Hay
182:and later U.S. Secretary of State, remembered
16:1857 autobiographical book by Fitz Hugh Ludlow
719:New York: Bantam, 1992, pp. 163-164: âAfter
789:Scanned downloadable version on Googlebooks
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530:Ludlow, Fitz Hugh "The Night Entrance",
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641:, Arkham House, 1964, II, pp. 118-119.
404:The mid 1970s saw two new editions of
369:. In 1966, excerpts were published in
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76:(1857) is an autobiographical book by
665:Marihuana: Americaâs New Drug Problem
266:Marihuana: Americaâs New Drug Problem
94:Confessions of an English Opium-Eater
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546:Ludlow, Fitz Hugh "The Visionary",
347:The Hasty Papers: A One-Shot Review
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363:The Drug Experience
321:, in the 1957 book
297:on the other hand:
126:published in 2003.
117:Publication history
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762:The Hashish Eater
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338:researcher
312:surrealists
247:The Equinox
229:Rediscovery
137:psychedelic
804:1857 books
798:Categories
783:1434809862
746:Mark Twain
582:Nora Perry
454:Mark Twain
359:David Ebin
310:and other
291:Eccentrics
243:de Quincey
345:In 1960,
336:mescaline
281:In 1953,
251:Vedantist
144:marijuana
62:Published
470:See also
361:âs book
176:John Hay
103:laudanum
97:(1821),
82:cannabis
56:Cannabis
44:Language
734:Nabokov
169:&c.
149:hashish
111:alcohol
52:Subject
47:English
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