The Dedalus Book of Absinthe

by Baker, Phil

  “affinity” W.N.Arnold ‘Vincent Van Gogh and the thujone connection’ Journal of the American Medical Association Vol.260 no.20 Nov.25 1988 p.3042

  “I fight this insomnia with a very, very strong dose of camphor …” ibid. p.3043

  “… any more than when we are dead we can take the train.” cited Lanier p.89

  “… as though they held him in a strong embrace.” U.F.Vanden broucke, cited in Arnold ‘Vincent Van Gogh and the thujone connection’ p.3044

  “… three days of drowsiness or sleep.” Adam Gottlieb Legal Highs p.53

  “… mainly consisting of thujone.” ibid. p.52

  “I’ll keep y’all informed (if I can remember!)” ‘Kurt’ ‘Absinthe: My Dance with the Green Fairy’ at entheogen.com

  “agitated, incoherent, and disoriented state” etc. S.D.Weisbord, J.B.Soule, P.L.Kimmel ‘Poison on Line: Acute Renal Failure Caused by Oil of Wormwood Purchased Through the Internet’ New England Journal of Medicine Vol.337 no.12 p.825

  “… I am sorry for any pain this has caused you.” letter published on gumbopages.com

  “… but getting to that point is quite dangerous.” Lilith, in Frauenfelder ‘Absinthe Devotees’ wired.com

  “liquid joint” Frauenfelder op.cit

  “… ever invented by the mind of man” Zolotow ‘Absinthe’ p.174

  “… a morbid craving.” Eric Newby A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush p.163

  “… continued to gorge themselves.”ibid. p.174

  Meschler et al. – Meschler J, Marsh C, Land B, Howlett ‘Failure of the active component of absinthe to bind the cannabinoid receptor’ International Cannabinoid Research Society paper (1997), cited in Matthew Baggot Absinthe FAQ [net]

  260/350ppm: Strang et al. ‘Absinthe: What’s Your Poison?’

  “… based on that personal experience, I’d guess it’s quite high in thujone.” Anon. at Sepulchritude.com ‘Absinthe Guide’

  “… alcoholism is the enemy of art and the curse of Western civilisation …” Cyril Connolly cited Dardis p.9

  “In France no one expects very much from anyone who drinks …” Glenway Westcott cited Dardis p.11

  “… put up with fools, leave your work alone and not think of it after you knock off …” Hemingway, cited Dardis p.202

  “… a depressant to check the mental exhilaration produced by extended sobriety” F.Exley, A Fan’s Notes (Penguin, 1990) p.31

  “… but does not always depart when he wishes.” Baudelaire, Intimate Journals p.13

  “somewhere during that second drink, a switch was flipped … . never have enough.” Caroline Knapp, Drinking p.53

  “… the approach to the void must be gradual, it must be attenuated.” Patrick McGrath, The Grotesque (Penguin, 1990) p.133

  “On n’est pas pressés” Ralph Rumney Le Consul (Paris, Editions Allia, 1999) p.27

  “… On a le temps.” Cited A.Hussey The Game of War: The Life and Death of Guy Debord p.56

  “… drunk much more than most people who drink.” Guy Debord Panegyric trans. James Brook (Verso, 1991) p.34

  “… the true taste of the passage of time.” ibid. p.35

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

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  Crowley, Aleister (as ‘Jeanne la Goulue)‘La Légende de l’Absinthe’ The International (New York, October 1917)

  Crowley, Aleister ‘The Green Goddess’ The International (New York, February 1918)

  Dardis, Tom The Thirsty Muse: Alcohol and the American Writer (Abacus, 1990)

  Debord, Guy Panegyric trans. James Brook (Verso, 1991)

  Delahaye, Marie-Claude L’Absinthe, histoire de la fée verte (Paris, Berger-Levrault, 1987)

  Delahaye, Marie-Claude L’Absinthe: Art et Histoire (Paris, Editions Trame Way, 1990)

  Delahaye, Marie-Claude, and Noel, Benoit L’Absinthe: muse des peintres (Paris, Editions de l’Amateur, 1999)

  Delahaye, Marie-Claude L’Absinthe: muse des poètes (Auvers-sur- Oise, Musée de l’Absinthe, 2000)

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  Dubois, Claude Apaches, Voyous et Gonzes Poilus (Paris, editions Parigramme, 1996)

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ndus, 1949)

  Frauenfelder, Mark, ‘Absinthe Devotees: The Green Fog’, August 2000 [wired.com]

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  Gide, André The Counterfeiters (NY, Knopf, 1927)

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  Goncourt, Edmond and Jules de Pages From The Goncourt Journals ed.Robert Baldick (O.U.P., 1962)

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  Guyot, Yves. L’absinthe et le délire persecuteur (Paris, 1907)

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  Helliker, Adam, ‘Lethal Tipple’ Sunday Telegraph 2 May 1999

  Hemingway, Ernest For Whom the Bell Tolls (Jonathan Cape, 1941)

  Hemingway, Ernest Death in the Afternoon (Jonathan Cape, 1932)

  [Hichens, Robert] Anon. The Green Carnation (William Heinemann, 1894)

  Hodgkinson, Tom, ‘Absinthe – that’s the spirit’ Telegraph 3 Dec 1998

  Hodgkinson, Tom ‘Wild Green Fairy Liquid’ Loaded February 1999

  Hold KM, Sirisoma NS, Ikeda T, Narahashi T, Casida JE ‘Alpha-thujone (the active component of absinthe): gamma- aminobutyric acid type A receptor modulation and metabolic detoxification’ Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 97:8 (April 11, 2000)

  Hopkins, R.Thurston, ‘A London Phantom’ printed as Appendix D of Ernest Dowson Letters

  Hughes, Robert, Nothing If Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists (Harvill, 1990)

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  Jarry, Alfred Days and Nights (Atlas, 1989)

  Jones, Thomas The Art of Distilling Simple and Compound Waters on the Most Modern and Improved Principles (London, n.d. c.1840)

  Joyce, James, Ulysses (Bodley Head, 1960)

  Joyce, James, Finnegans Wake (Faber, 1939)

  Kernahan, Coulson ‘Two Absinthe-Minded Beggars’ Chamber’s Journal (June 1930)

  Kington, Miles, The World of Alphonse Allais (Chatto)

  Klein, Richard, Cigarettes Are Sublime (Picador, 1995)

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  Lancet, The Sept 7th 1872 ‘New researches on the properties of absinthe’

  Lancet, The [see also Brasher]

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  Machen, Arthur, Arthur Machen: A Bibliography by Henry Danielson, with Notes by Arthur Machen (Henry Danielson, 1923)

  Macintyre, Ben ‘One green bottle makes fools of us all’ Times 5 Dec 98

  Mangrum, Stuart ‘Absinthe, the Potent Green Fairy’ in Proust Said That issue no.7 [proust.com]

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  Miller, Stuart, ‘Green Fairy Fires Spirits After Long Absinthe’ Guardian Dec.1st 1998

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  Moore, John, ‘The Return of Absinthe’ The Idler (Winter, 1997)

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  O’Sullivan, Vincent Aspects of Wilde (New York, Henry Holt, 1936)

  Pagnol, Marcel The Time of Secrets trans. Rita Barisse (Hamish Hamilton, 1962)

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  Weisbord SD, Soule JB, and Kimmel PL ‘Poison on line: acute renal failure caused by oil of wormwood purchased through the internet New England Journal of Medicine 337 no.12: p.825
(1997)

  Wilde, Oscar, The Picture of Dorian Gray (O.U.P. 1974)

  Wilde, Oscar The Complete Letters of Oscar Wilde ed. Merlin Holland and Rupert Hart-Davis (Fourth Estate, 2000)

  Williams, F.Harald, Confessions of a Poet (Hutchinson, 1894)

  Wilson, Edmund, Axel’s Castle (Penguin, 1993)

  Wolff, Geoffrey Black Sun (New York, Random House, 1976)

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  Yeats, W.B. Autobiographies (Macmillan, 1955)

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  Zola, Emile, L’Assomoir trans. Leonard Tancock (Penguin, 1970)

  Zola, Emile, Nana trans. George Holden (Penguin, 1972)

  Zolotow, Maurice ‘Absinthe’ Playboy (June 1971)

  INTERNET

  “Absinthe” currently (as of midsummer 2001) brings up 54,400 or so hits on the Internet, using the search engine Google. Much of this is ephemeral or low grade material, like the piece suggesting “Perhaps these artists of the 19th century stumbled upon a key that may, in the future, allow us to genetically alter our children to be artistic prodigies.” However, several absinthe sites stand out, particularly ‘Le Fée Verte’ at the American Gothic site Sepulchritude (Sepulchritude.com), and Matthew Baggott’s excellent ‘Absinthe FAQ’ or “frequently asked questions”, which is currently disseminated on various sites. There are other absinthe sites which are high quality but primarily promotional, commercial, marketing sites of one kind or another. The engaging New Orleans website ‘The Gumbo Pages’ (gumbopages.com) contains only a little about absinthe, but is of interest because it contains the other side of the “internet wormwood overdose” story.

  THE ABSINTHE MUSEUM

  Marie-Claude Delahaye’s excellent absinthe museum, Le Musée de l’Absinthe, can be found at 44 rue Callé, 95430 Auvers-sur-Oise.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Any modern writer on absinthe is indebted to the work of Marie-Claude Delahaye, who has largely rescued French absinthe drinking from cultural oblivion. Her books on the subject are an indispensable resource. I have also very much enjoyed Barnaby Conrad’s impressively researched and superbly illustrated book on the subject, and learned things too from Doris Lanier’s.