Guy Lochhead, 05/03/12
American author most well known for his memoirs of cannabis consumption, ‘The Hasheesh Eater’. He became “addicted” to a cannabis-based tetanus remedy called Tilden’s Extract whilst a student at the College of New Jersey. He wrote about his visions whilst withdrawing from the drug in the 1850s, and the book gained a cult following among the bohemians of New York. He went on to work as an art critic at the New York Evening Post, writing in various forms, continuing to struggle with addiction to various opiates and endeavouring to set up homeless shelters. He died aged 34. Ludlow would have been a bit of a hero if he’d kicked his first habit and left it that, with one piece of incredible drug writing under his belt. His writing is wonderfully vivid, unpredictable and diverse, and he succeeds in creating the sort of introverted atmospheres he must have experienced during his addictions. Sadly, he basically became a hipster who couldn’t handle drugs. On top of this, he was more racist than most of his time, and this sometimes rears its stupid head in his writing…