the dope report

America’s idea of a dope fiend came straight from 1950’s fiction, according to The Sensational World of Drug Paperbacks a new book by Stephen J. Gertz of Feral House. Alternet reprints some of Gertz’s new book this week, but what grabbed TDR was the art. If only our opium den looked as cool. Some select points from Gertz’s excerpt on Alternet.

... drug-themed paperback books provide the richest, most direct record of American pop culture’s fascination, repulsion, fears, realities, perceptions, fantasies, paranoia, facts, hopes, follies and fallacies regarding psychoactive drugs during the beginning, rise and crest of what has been characterized as “America’s Second Drug Epidemic.” ... In 1953, an unknown writer just shy of his fortieth birthday had his first book published. Issued by a new, small paperback publisher, it sold 113,170 copies in its first year. The book was Junkie, written by William S. Burroughs under the pseudonym “William Lee.” Given the sales figure, one might reasonably conclude that this was a fabulous success, a best-seller, an amazing accomplishment for a first-time novelist. It was, to the contrary, merely a respectable number, in fact somewhat below average, many if not most paperbacks selling in the 200,000-copy range.