Stewart Frescas's Lab Copy of PiHKAL

Originally published in 1991, the first half of PiHKAL: a Chemical Love Story, written by Alexander Shulgin and Ann Shulgin, is an autobiographical story of two fictional characters each with a fascination with psychedelics who ultimately share their fascinations and their lives with each other. The second half of the book chronicles more than a decade of the authors’ experiences creating and ingesting almost two hundred phenethylamines. This second half includes chemical recipes and personal narratives of the effects of those chemicals. This copy of PiHKAL is one of two signed copies given to Stewart Frescas by Alexander (Sasha) Shulgin. Frescas had helped review the manuscript prior to publication. This lab copy was used by Frescas in David Nichols’ Lab at Purdue University and includes several pages marked with self-stick notes for easy reference. Frescas can be seen holding this copy of PiHKAL in the film Dirty Pictures (2010), a documentary about Dr. Shulgin.

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