Le Hachych

Paris: Librairie de Paulin, 1843. 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.