We all learn the Robert Louis Stevenson’s story of the good Doctor Jekyll fairly early on, and it’s been reused countless times in print and in cinema (Jerry Lewis or Eddie Murphy?) but a lot of people don’t know its origins — cocaine.
At the time he wrote the story, around 1885, Stevenson was in bad pulmonary shape. The doctors, being doctors, of course, prescribed, of course — cocaine. And loads of it.
Stevenson returned home but suffered typical cocaine-induced frenzies. He wrote Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde in one of those frenzies, which was murder on his wife. His wife was so pissed off that after he wrote the first draft in three days, she tossed it in the fire (Stevenson was doing things like napping off in exhaustion, being woken up by her and told to go to bed, and screaming, “I was having a nightmare of a fine bogeyman! Damn you!” at her).
Now, Stevenson’s response? Well, he was still on the cocaine, so he simply wrote another draft of the thing in three days.
Reading the story, it’s not hard to see the parallel. In both the story and real life, tolerance builds, there are severe withdrawals, and it’s notable that I believe Jekyll adds a “white powder” to all of his concoctions at some point.
So there you go. Not Coked Out Guy and Coked Out Guy. Otherwise known as Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde.
