THE SNOW PAPERS. a Memoir of Illusion, Power-Lust, and Cocaine.

Hardback, 1st US edn. Richard Smart had it made. A senior adviser for Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 California campaign and a speechwriter for Alan Cranston's winning Senate race, he was at the peak of his career as a corporate and government consultant. But Richard Smart had a secret. At the height of his success, when it seemed this ambitious young graduate of Yale Law School and Wall Street had realised the 20th century version of the American dream, he was hooked on cocaine. This is the story of a man whose unrelenting quest for social and professional success was fuelled by a drug that left him emotionally devastated and professionally ruined - a drug that until then was perceived as a social curiosity, a "fad" limited to entertainers, celebrities, and professional athletes. This book destroys that myth by describing in detail the ambience, nature, and consequences of cocaine use in America's leadership class - the lawyers, congressmen, investment bankers, corporate executives. It is a unique insight into the cocaine epidemic that, in Richard Smart's words, "could yet become a practical calamity for America." 321pp. 8vo. h/back. F. in vg. dw.