Effects of Alcoholic Drinks, Tobacco, Sedatives, Narcotics

Chicago: Wheeler Publishing Company. Good. (c.1949). First Edition. Hardcover. (no dust jacket, probably as issued) [ex-school textbook with "L.A. City High Schools" circulation label on front pastedown, along with two stamps indicating the book to be the property of Van Nuys High School (see notes for additional details), moderate handling wear and external soiling, a couple of black scrape marks on front cover, spine a bit darkened]. (pen and ink drawings) Anti-drink-and-dope screed, targeted to high school students. The title is a bit misleading, as the explication of the evils of booze actually takes up close to 3/4 of the book, with much smaller sections devoted to tobacco and "Habit-forming Drugs." After an introductory group of four chapters about how great (or potentially tough) Life is -- "The Durable Satisfactions of Life"; "The Anxious Modern World"; etc. -- every possible angle is covered in the 25 chapters devoted to alcohol, beginning with "The Story of Alcohol Through the Ages," and covering all the physiological, medical, psychological, societal, and familial reasons why YOU'RE DOOMED IN YOU DRINK. The somewhat crude illustrations are occasionally hilarious, such as the 6-panel alliterative depiction of stages of intoxication: dry and decent; delightful and devilish; delinquent and disorderly; dizzy and delirious; dazed and deserted; dead drunk. An especially charming feature of this particular copy derives from a very personal annotation bestowed upon the inside-front-cover label by an anonymous long-ago student: a wide-open lipstick print, accompanied by the carefully-lettered slogan "Kiss My Ass." .