White Rabbit: A Psychedelic Reader

By: Randall Koral

Collects literature on drugs and drug users, including Jim Hogshire on the reptilian effects of DM cough syrup and Lewis Carroll sending Alice down the rabbit hole.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811806669
• ISBN13: 9780811806664
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.07 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 1.3" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

COOL COVER

Not the best drug related book I've read but certainly not bad either. You'll find the usual suspects lined up to tell you about their experiences in dimensions beyond the known. I don't believe it's true to say that there is nothing more boring than listening to other people describe their acid trips. A lot of what's in White Rabbit is pretty interesting although not as interesting and inspired as the Jefferson Airplanes classic song.

Brilliant compilation of brilliant writers

An extraordinary sampling of some of the best authors of our time. Mind bending story after mind bending story engrosses the reader in worlds where thought has been invaded by one or another substance until the reader's mind is warped by the words on the page. I also learned a great deal about the authors and their writing that I hadn't known before. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in human thought.

Enter another reality

The wide variety of writing here examines the vast amount of literature about drugs with emphasis on drug users. It's a comprehensive anthology that permits the adventurous reader to experience the complete range of substances, from absinthe and ecstasy to yage and opium to moonshine, as narrated by some of the world's most imaginative writers. These include William Burroughs, Nelson Algren, Florence Nightingale, Jean Cocteau, Arthur Conan Doyle, Philip K. Dick, Miles Davis, Aldous Huxley, Charles Baudelaire, Terence McKenna, Lewis Carroll, Hunter S. Thompson, Paul Bowles, Arthur Rimbaud, Marie Corelli, Tom Wolfe, Timothy Leary, Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Whether in ecstasy or hung over, addicted or recovering, the writers in White Rabbit examines the drug experience from every angle. Their always fascinating and often eloquent narratives provide a colorful read, amply rewarding the reader with its variety of experience. Some pieces are way too short, though, like Florence Nightingale's one little sentence, Paul Gauguin's two short paragraphs and Rimbaud's brief poem. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's little ode to opium is also quite skimpy. There are interesting biographies of all the authors, giving some background to the pieces here. This is a valuable work as it brings together so many interesting perspectives and writing styles. As the authors put it so well: "Drugs are inherently subversive, sometimes dangerous, occasionally great fun. They 'clear away the past and enhance the present,' they can inspire great art and greater experience, or they can unleash the monster lurking within."

A great anthology of the drug cultures best

A great anthology of stories, one of the most complete piles of drug culture writers around, giving one a brief look into a plethora of great writing that will lead to further investigation of their works by teasing them with this fine book. Packed with writers from all over the spectrum and many genres, old and new alike. A Must have for those deeply in love with the drug culture. This book gives the reader a taste of many great writers out there, all with mounds of their own material that needs to be read, this book can prove as a lead in to these readings and makes for an excellent leisurely taste of what is out there for those who desire it.