At the Border, No Tip of The Hat for This Dandy

It was unclear why U.S. officials hadn't flagged him on his six or seven previous trips to the United States, including two since security was increased after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"We do these on a case-by-case basis, and it depends on the totality of the circumstances," Cirillo said. "But when you're talking about cases involving moral turpitude or a narcotics addiction, we're very limited in our discretional authority."

Other British citizens who have been arrested on drug offenses over the years, including Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (one of the world's most famous and copious consumers of illegal pharmaceuticals), seem to have no problem coming and going to the United States as they please.

But Horsley is now permanently banned from using the Visa Waiver Program. If he wants to come to the United States, he must apply for a visa and "the State Department will decide," Cirillo said.

Naturally, Horsley's case was seen differently in the artistic community. There, it was viewed as the equivalent of being prosecuted for driving 26 mph in a 25 mph zone -- technically correct, but nutty.

In England, Horsley is widely seen as a fairly harmless eccentric, and hardly a danger to society. His rejection struck many as using a bazooka to kill a fly.

"It wasn't like he came in with a syringe sticking out of his arm and a drink in his hand," said Carrie Kania, of Harper Perennial, the U.S. publisher of Horsley's book.

"He hasn't even had a drink in the last three years," she said. "And if we start looking at everything everyone did when they were 20 years old, who would we let in this country?"

Kania said Horsley's case involves larger issues of free speech and artistic expression. "Art is meant to be provocative," she said. "Sebastian's lifestyle is his art."

If artists who offend were banned from America, she said, foreign or expatriate literary legends such as William S. Burroughs, Henry Miller and Charles Baudelaire would have been unwelcome in the United States.

On the night that Horsley was sent home, his party went ahead at the Housing Works bookstore in New York's SoHo. Artists read tributes to Horsley and some wore top hats in his honor.

A Little Too Dandy

Back in London, Horsley is still reeling, chain-smoking Marlboros in his small apartment on a little side street. He's still wearing the same suit and velvet vest, pacing the worn wooden floor in front of a cozy, crackling fire. The main room of his tiny apartment has no furniture except a small desk and a red velvet throne. An easel sits along one wall holding one of Horsley's huge black and red abstract paintings. Brushes and paints are carefully laid out next to paint-splattered suit jackets.