The Doors of Perception. London: Chatto & Windus, 1954.
Octavo, pp. [1-]62[-64]. Original blue cloth, spine blocked in gilt, original dust-jacket designed by John Woodcock. (Light damp damage to foot of spine and lower inner corners of the covers, dust-jacket chipped and somewhat toned).
First edition of a classic incunable of the literature of drug-culture.
The author narrates here his experiences during an afternoon when he had taken mescaline. He recalls the insights he experienced ranging from "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". Mescaline has been used in Native American religious ceremonies for thousands of years, and is extracted from the Peyote cactus. The drug was regarded, when Huxley wrote his book, as a research chemical (it is now a class ‘A’ drug, under normal circumstances). The U. S. Navy had had a research project to examine the potential of mescaline as a truth revealing agent in 1947.
- Jacket Condition: chipped and toned
- Binding Condition: damp damage
- Overall Condition: see above
- Size: 7 1/2 x 4 3/4in; 188 x 123mm
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