Stephen Abrams

Original prospectus, April 1972. 19pp., printed rectos only, bound in thin oversize card wrappers bound with three brass clips. SIGNED by the author on the title page.

The last page reproduces a carbon copy of a lengthy letter to Abrams from Francis Huxley (the book’s intended dedicatee), dated April 20, 1972, at the foot of which Abrams has added in holograph ink: “copy of a carbon. The original plus a copy of Prospectus intercepted and stolen by Thom Keyes and/or Michael show more Hollingshead” (the theft probably occurred at Hilton Hall in Cambridgeshire, then occupied by Abrams and house guest Keyes, either when Hollingshead was passing through on the way from his commune on the Isle of Cumbrae to London in late 1971, or, perhaps more likely, several months later, when he temporarily based himself there).

Abrams' book project sought to unify his lifelong research into parapsychology, Jungian synchronicity and the psychedelic experience, but remained unrealised, this detailed prospectus its only manifestation.

Together with: Steve Abrams’ lengthy review of “Drugs and Magic”, an anthology edited by George Andrews and published by Panther Books. 4pp. typescript with holograph amendments, dated March 1975. Probably unpublished. In it, Abrams’ critiques the book, in part due to its inclusion of an extract from an essay by Jung: “not the first time that George Andrews has tried to create the erroneous impression that Jung was favourably disposed toward the use of drugs and the practice of magic.”. show less

Original typescript (carbon). Quarto, 13pp., lightweight paper stapled at top corner. Dated September 1966. Unpublished. Approximately 20 holograph amendments by the author, with a pencilled annotation preceding the title: “for The Book of Grass ed. Geo Andrews pub Peter Owen 1966”.

The text bears only a passing resemblance to the essay in “The Book of Grass” published by Peter Owen in 1966 and the Grove Press in 1967 (“The Oxford Scene and the Law”), though its subject matter, show more “The use of marijuana in Oxford, and in England generally”, is the same.

In this text (presumably a first draft), the title references a slang name for cannabis use, and Abrams places greater emphasis on “the ethnic tradition which gave rise to it”, employing language since outmoded: “With the massive West Indian immigration, the Englishman now lives side by side with the Negro, and finds it hard to keep up with his pretentiousness. And of course the Negro has brought his pot with him and is prepared to share it.” Another part, subsequently rewritten for the published version, describes how “pot in Oxford has been shown to work great wonders when socially retarded individuals are successfully turned on”, such as “a young Don who had previously received psychiatric treatment for several years and been forced to live on the barbiturates and amphetamines, both dangerous drugs…”.

Its final (unpublished) paragraph anticipates Abrams’ subsequent cannabis law reform petition: “The present law has no scientific or moral justification and merely acts to increase the access that young people have to heroin without effectively controlling the use of marijuana”. The author concludes by asking: “Can a Socialist government afford to miss an opportunity to reduce social and racial tensions? How long will it be until the Chancellor of the Exchequer realizes that he is being robbed by the Home Secretary?”

Almost certainly unseen since it was written in 1966, the manuscript offers an insight into the development of the author’s thinking and the sequence of events that led him to create the SOMA Research Association a few months later, culminating in the landmark advertisement it sponsored in The Times in July 1967. show less

Will always read a Midkemia book. Just a kind of brief summary of all the books.