Reviews of psychedelic literature, trip lit and drug-related writing first published between 1945 and 1970.
The Acid Nightmare (1967) by ME Chaber (Kendell Foster Crossen) is a mystery/crime novel. When someone is murdered during an acid party, Johnny Blake can’t be sure whether it was him or not – even though the gun was in his hand.
The Gantry Episode (1968) by June Drummond was published by Victor Gollancz. One of a host of novels published in the late 1960s, which all had LSD being pumped into a local water supply as their major premise, this particular...
Originally published in 1969 by Brockhampton Press (UK), and later reissued by White Lion (1974), The Sugar Cube Trap by Madelaine Duke is a short novel set in Brighton, East Sussex. After one of their friends becomes ‘hooked’ on acid...
Published in the United States in 1967, Lovemaster by Lambert Macy is a hippie exploitation novel set against the backdrop of LSD’s emergence into the youth culture of the 1960s. It is told from the point of view of protagonist Dr...
This review first appeared in the Psychedelic Press journal 2015 Volume III Albert Hofmann in Godenholm Ernst Jünger’s short novel Visit to Godenholm, first published in Germany in 1952 as Besuch auf Godenholm[i], is now available in English language translation...
The 1950s was an important decade in the formulation of the Western world’s relationship with psychoactive substances. Scientific research with LSD, mescaline, and other hallucinogens gathered great pace; a spurt of new literature, most famously Aldous Huxley’s The Doors of...
Originally published in 1968 by Michael Joseph Ltd., ‘The Inseparables: He used LSD to recreate the horrors of Dachau’ was written by Russell Braddon (1921-1995). The Australian author also wrote ‘The Naked Island’ (1952), an account of his experience as...
Thousand Times Broken is comprised of 3 never-before-translated books by Henri Michaux, originally written between 1956-1959. Undertaken while the author experimented with mescaline, ‘Peace in the Breaking’, ‘Watchtowers on Targets’, and ‘400 Men on the Cross’, reveal the creative output of...
Originally published in France in 1967 under the title ‘L’Pays de l’éclairement’, this edition of Charles Duits classic, entitled ‘Peyote Dreams’, has been translated and reissued by Park Street Press (2013). Duits (1925-1991) was a French writer and surrealist largely...
Originally published in 1955 ‘The Splintered Man’ by M. E. Chaber is one of the very earliest works of fiction (and non-fiction) to deal with LSD. The book is remarkable for pointing out how LSD could easily be used by...
