In the Arms of Morpheus is the shocking story of how a simple but bewitching substance touted as a miracle drug enslaved unwitting generations of nineteenth-century writers, artists and ordinary citizens.

Extracted from opium, the sap of the poppy, Opium was welcomed into the homes of rich and poor alike under the guise of medical use in the form of laudanum and patent medicines, and as pure, undisguised morphine. In the Arms of Morpheus examines how opium eating -- the drinking of laudanum for medical reasons -- became, in the nineteenth century, an everyday safeguard against pain, poverty and boredom. Opium tonics relieved symptoms but did not cure. Instead, they made fortunes for numberless charlatans, especially in the United States, where patent medicine sales mushroomed.

Thoroughly researched and copiously illustrated with photographs, engravings, advertisements, movie stills, pulp magazine and dime novel covers and paraphernalia, In the Arms of Morpheus continues the history of opium's emergence as an omnipresent and sometimes devastating influence. It's an eye-opening account that is fascinating and uncomfortably close to home.