Timothy Leary: A Biography - Hardcover

Greenfield, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151005001 ISBN 13: 9780151005000

Publisher: Harcourt Publishers,U.S., 2006

Synopsis

To a generation in full revolt against any form of authority, "Tune in, turn on, drop out" became a mantra, and it's author, Dr. Timothy Leary, a guru. A charismatic and brilliant psychologist, Leary became first intrigued and then obsessed by the effects of psychedelic drugs in the 1960s while teaching at Harvard, where he not only encouraged but instituted their experimental use among students and faculty. What began as research into human consciousness turned into a mission to alter consciousness itself. This volume looks at how Leary transformed himself from serious social scientist into counterculture shaman, embodying the idealism and the hedonism of an age of revolutionary change.

About this title

Review:

PRAISE FOR DARK STAR: AN ORAL BIOGRAPHY OF JERRY GARCIA "A poignant glimpse of a man with extraordinary power who ultimately used that power against himself."-THE BOSTON GLOBE "Greenfield renders an unflinching portrait of one of the most prolific and enigmatic figures in American music." -SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

From the Back Cover:

In the first major biography of Timothy Leary, Robert Greenfield immerses the reader in the life and times of a compelling but troubled American icon.
To a generation in open revolt against any form of authority, Tune in, turn on, drop out became a mantra, and its popularizer, Dr. Timothy Leary, a guru. While in Mexico in 1960, Leary, then a charismatic lecturer in Harvard s psychology department, tried magic mushrooms for the first time and immediately became convinced that first psilocybin and then LSD could fling open the doors of perception. Under the aegis of Aldous Huxley, Leary launched the Harvard Psychedelic Project and transformed himself into a psychedelic messiah who promised it all: self-liberation, hedonistic satisfaction, and spiritual fulfillment.
"Compulsively readable."--New York Observer
"It will never be necessary to write another [biography of Leary]."
Louis Menand, The New Yorker

"Leary's wild ride is the subject of a hugely entertaining new biography by Robert Greenfield, the first man to take on the myth. LA Weekly
ROBERT GREENFIELD is the author of a biography of Jerry Garcia and a book about rock impresario Bill Graham, which won a Ralph J. Gleason Award and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Excellence. He lives in California.
A James H. Silberman Book"

About this edition

• Publisher: Harcourt Publishers,U.S.
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0151005001
• ISBN 13: 9780151005000
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 704