Dipsomaniac
Apr 17th, 2013 by houghtonmodern
This post is part of an ongoing series featuring items from the newly acquired Santo Domingo collection.
Though the Santo Domingo Collection is exhaustive in its coverage of opium and LSD, this week we feature a text on a perfectly legal drug: alcohol. A literary gent: a study in vanity and dipsomania, published in 1895 by the English novelist Coulson Kernahan, is a cautionary tale about a writer afflicted with the titular conditions. Dipsomania, a nineteenth century antecedent to our modern conception of alcoholism, is an uncontrollable craving for drink, which accompanies the egotism that our narrator experiences as he finds literary success. This 61-page story is part of a series of four, entitled Strange Sins, and is bound in decorative black publisher’s bookcloth.
While brief, A literary gent is relentless in its condemnation of alcohol abuse. In an address to the reader following his sorry tale, rather than offering apology or proof of redemption, the protagonist ends his narrative with a final twist of the knife:
No, I have only one reason for writing this story. Can you not guess it? It is that I may sell it—as I’d sell my immortal soul were I able—for money to buy more drink. (p. 61)
Coulson Kernahan. A literary gent. London : Ward, Lock & Co., 1895-6. PR6021.E727 L5 1895.
Thanks to rare book cataloger Ryan Wheeler for contributing this post.