Light Through Darkness

New York: The Orion Press,, 1963. First U.S. Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Large 8vo 9" - 10. Sturdy, attractive, tightly bound hardcover, clean, bright interior, lightly worn and soiled grey cloth covers, still sharp white and gold lettering to front cover and spine, minimal rubbing to extremities, and some foxing to page edges. First English Edition, having been translated from the 1961 original French edition by Haakon Chevalier. Michaux's important treatise investigates his "explorations among drugs." The poet and visual artist, Henri Michaux (1899-1984), makes here an important contribution to drug literature. His own personal experimentation with psychedelics began in his own 50s, but then he ceased drug-taking before taking them up again a decade or so later in therapeutic mode. The present tome blends prose and poetry analysis of his experience with psilocybin, mescaline, and marijuana. He opines, too, as did Aldous Huxley, on mental illness and possible curative functions of psychedelia. Michaux was Belgium-born. This was the first American edition. Later on in his career, Michaux was associated with the so-called Tachiste movement in the 1940s and 1950s. Volume contains scholarly apparatus in the form of, e.g., notes, index, and bibliography. 230 pp.Member, I.O.B.A., C.B.A., and adherent to the highest ethical standards. Additional postage may be required for oversize or especially heavy volumes, and for sets.