It was 70 years ago this month ... LSD in literature

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

This beautiful book just came with the post:

http://www.dla-marbach.de/shop/shop_einzelansicht/index.html?backPID=51365&begin_at=50&tt_products=685

Richly illustrated and annotated, it contains the correspondence of 
Hofmann and Jünger.


  "MM 142.143 | LSD. Albert Hofmann und Ernst Jünger. Der Briefwechsel
  1947 bis 1997

2013. 202 Seiten, zahlreiche farbige Abb. Broschiert. ISBN 
978-3-937384-99-3.

INHALT
Ernst Jüngers Drogenexperimente und sein Buch
  >Annäherungen. Drogen und Rausch<
   Helmut Lethen und Cord Riechelmann im Gespräch
Albert Hofmann und Ernst Jünger. Der Briefwechsel 1947 bis 1997
Anmerkungen
Editorische Nachbemerkung

AM ANFANG STEHT EIN TOPF HONIG, der aus der Schweiz nicht ausgeführt 
werden darf, am Ende ein chinesischer Glückspilz, gefunden oberhalb der 
Rittimatte im Basler Land, der auch noch dem 101- jährigen ein langes 
Leben schenken soll: Ein halbes Jahrhundert lang schreiben sich der 
Schriftsteller Ernst Jünger (1895--1998) und der LSD-Entdecker Albert 
Hofmann (1906--2008), von 1947 bis zu Jüngers Tod. Sie telefonieren 
miteinander, besuchen sich und verreisen zusammen -- nach Sri Lanka und 
Kreta, aber auch mit Hilfe verschiedener Drogenexperimente. Das erste 
Mal 1951: »Wir hatten die Schuhe ausgezogen; es war ein Ausflug, zu dem 
man weder Stab noch Stiefel, weder Rad noch Flügel braucht«, erinnert 
sich Ernst Jünger in /Annäherungen. Drogen und Rausch/ (1970). Der nun 
erstmals publizierte Briefwechsel zeigt die bürgerliche Nachkriegswelt, 
in der diese auch literarisch genutzten Trips stattfanden.

Bestell-Nr.: 142.143/2013

EUR 18.00 (inkl. gesetzl. MwSt.)"


On 19.04.2013 15:49, Kai Frederik Lorentzen wrote:
>
> http://www.titanic-magazin.de/postkarten/karte/drogengott-ernst-juenger-feiert-100-jahre-ecstasy-495-2048/
>
> This is satire on occasion of Jünger's 100th birthday, --- but then 
> again Ernst Jünger (1895-1998) used a lot of drugs. Opium, cocaine and 
> cannabis in the 1920s, psychedelics after WW II. He was a close friend 
> of Albert Hofmann, and the two were tripping together several times. 
> Jünger's short novel (or: long story) /Besuch auf Godenholm/ from 1952 
> is, as far as I know, the first Acid story in fictional literature. 
> Like most of Jünger's work not translated into English. But of his 
> large essay /Annährungen. Drogen und Rausch/ (1970), in which EJ 
> minted the term "Psychonautik", a small sample was published under the 
> title 'Drugs and Ecstasy' in: Myths and Symbols. Studies in Honor of 
> Mircea Eliade. Edited by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Charles H. Long. 
> Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press (1969), pp. 
> 327-42. Both, the narration and the essay, I can wholeheartedly 
> recommend. In Hofmann's/LSD --- mein Sorgenkind/ there's a chapter on 
> Jünger:
>
> http://www.psychedelic-library.org/child7.htm
>
> Here's the sample from /Besuch auf Godenholm/, giving a fine 
> description how things start to get weird:
>
> "Schwarzenberg burned an incense stick, as he sometimes did, to clear 
> the air. A blue plume ascended from the tip of the stick. Moltner 
> looked at it first with astonishment, then with delight, as if a new 
> power of the eyes had come to him. It revealed itself in the play of 
> this fragrant smoke, which ascended from the slender stick and then 
> branched out into a delicate crown. It was as if his imagination had 
> created it-a pallid web of sea lilies in the depths, that scarcely 
> trembled from the beat of the surf. Time was active in this 
> creation-it had circled it, whirled about it, wreathed it, as if 
> imaginary coins rapidly piled up one on top of another. The abundance 
> of space revealed itself in the fiber work, the nerves, which 
> stretched and unfolded in the height, in a vast number of filaments.
>     Now a breath of air affected the vision, and softly twisted it 
> about the shaft like a dancer. Moltner uttered a shout of surprise. 
> The beams and lattices of the wondrous flower wheeled around in new 
> planes, in new fields. Myriads of molecules observed the harmony. Here 
> the laws no longer acted under the veil of appearance; matter was so 
> delicate and weightless that it clearly reflected them. How simple and 
> cogent everything was. The numbers, masses and weights stood out from 
> matter. They cast off the raiments. No goddess could inform the 
> initiates more boldly and freely. The pyramids with their weight did 
> not reach up to this revelation. That was Pythagorean luster. No 
> spectacle had ever affected him with such a magic spell."
>
> Does anybody know a fictional text about (or inspired by) Acid prior 
> to 1952?
>
> http://www.experienceproject.com/stories/Love-The-Works-Of-Ernst-Junger/2889672
> http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Besuch_auf_Godenholm
> http://www.mj67.de/ej/ej1970cm.jpg
>

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