Mike Jay (author)

Mike Jay is a British author, curator, and cultural historian. ^{[1] [2]} He is known for his work on the history of mind-altering drugs. ^{[3] [4] [5] [6]}

Journalism

Jay writes regularly for the London Review of Books. ^[7] His articles have also appeared in the New York Review of Books, ^[8] Aeon, ^[9] the New Statesman, ^[10] and the New York Times. ^[11]

Bibliography

• Jay, Mike. Blue Tide: The Search for Soma. New York: Autonomedia, 1999.
• Jay, Mike. Emperors of Dreams: Drugs in the Nineteenth Century. Sawtry, UK: Dedalus, 2000. Revised and updated edition, 2011.
• Jay, Mike. The Air Loom Gang: The Strange and True Story of James Tilly Matthews and His Visionary Madness. London: Bantam Press, 2003. Revised and updated edition published as The Influencing Machine: James Tilly Matthews and the Air Loom (US edition titled A Visionary Madness).
• Jay, Mike. The Unfortunate Colonel Despard. London: Bantam Press, 2004. Reissued in a revised and updated edition as The Unfortunate Colonel Despard: And the British Revolution That Never Happened. Robinson, 2019.
• Jay, Mike. The Atmosphere of Heaven: The Unnatural Experiments of Dr. Beddoes and His Sons of Genius. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. Revised and retitled edition published as Free Radicals: How a Group of Romantic Experimenters Gave Birth to Psychedelic Science. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2025.
• Jay, Mike. High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture. London: Thames & Hudson, 2010.
• Jay, Mike. This Way Madness Lies: The Asylum and Beyond. London: Thames & Hudson, 2016. Published in partnership with the Wellcome Collection for the exhibition Bedlam: The Asylum and Beyond.
• Jay, Mike. Stranger Than Fiction: Essays by Mike Jay. London: Strange Attractor Press, 2018.
• Jay, Mike. Mescaline: A Global History of the First Psychedelic. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.
• Jay, Mike. Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023.
• Jay, Mike. Wireheads: An Unnatural History of Technology in the Brain. New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming October 2026.

As editor

• Jay, Mike, ed. Artificial Paradises: A Drugs Reader. London: Penguin, 1999.

• Jay, Mike, ed. Underworld of the East: Being Eighteen Years' Actual Experiences of the Underworlds, Drug Haunts and Jungles of India, China and Malaya, by James S. Lee. London: Green Magic, 2000. (Originally published London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1935).
• Jay, Mike, and Michael Neve, eds. 1900: A Fin-de-Siècle Reader. London: Penguin, 1999.
• Barnett, Richard. Medical London: City of Diseases, City of Cures. Edited by Mike Jay. London: Strange Attractor Press, 2008.

References

1. "Mike Jay - Author and cultural historian". Mike Jay. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
2. "Video: Psychedelics and the Future of Religion: Mescaline and Psychonauts with Mike Jay | Center for the Study of World Religions". cswr.hds.harvard.edu. Archived from the original on 2026-01-05. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
3. Burch, Druin (2009-05-06). "Review: The Atmosphere of Heaven by Mike Jay | New Scientist". New Scientist. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
4. "Emperors of Dreams, By Mike Jay". The Independent. 2012-01-26. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
5. Sansom, Ian (2019-06-13). "Mescaline by Mike Jay review – a global history of the first psychedelic". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2026-07-21.
6. Gray, Elizabeth K. (2023-09-01). "Psychonauts by Mike Jay review". History Today. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
7. Jay, Mike. "Mike Jay". London Review of Books. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
8. "Mike Jay". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
9. "Mike Jay | Aeon". Aeon. Archived from the original on 2026-02-12. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
10. "Mike Jay". New Statesman. Archived from the original on 2026-03-07. Retrieved 2026-07-21.
11. Jay, Mike (2024-12-23). "Opinion | Is Everyone High?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2026-07-21.