COOKE, M.C. Seven Sisters of Sleep: Popular History of the Seven Prevailing Narcotics of the World.

(London): James Blackwood, 1860.  First edition.  Hardcover.  19cm by 13cm.  xv, 371 pages.  This ground breaking survey, written in 1860, is a radically open-minded look at the use of drugs across the world and throughout the ages.  Noted by [Michael] Horowitz in his seminal catalogue Phatastica as being the rarest of all entheogenic books.  The volume is also believed to be a major influence on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland inspiring the passage where Alice grows or shrinks on eating parts of a mushroom.  The work delves into the history of seven prevailing narcotics of the world, exploring their cultural, historical, and medicinal significance. Detailing the most popular narcotic plants of the Victorian era: tobacco, opium, cannabis, betel nut, coca, datura, and fly agaric, the book covers legends, cultivation methods, consumption practices, and societal impacts of these substances. Through a blend of literary references and historical accounts, the author sheds light on the allure and dangers of narcotics, offering a comprehensive overview of their influence on various societies throughout history.   It also provides an excellent view of some of the draconian but fruitless attempts to suppress the practice.  Written at a time, similar to our own, when drug use was being reconsidered Cooke’s natural humor and keen insights have ensured this work’s reputation as possibly the best early book from what has grown into an enormous body of literature on mind- and mood-altering substances. Illustrated with engraved plates. This is a good copy in a modern brown leatherette binding with gilt lettering to the spine, new endpapers.  Some page edges, with old staining.  Still a solid presentable copy of this, one of the scarcest and most desirable works of drug literature.