Timothy Leary: A Biography

A fascinating, even-handed look at the life of a man who may have done more to bring psychedelic drugs to the United States than any other single person. Greenfield, a former editor of Rolling Stone, traces Leary's life through his beginnings as a creative academic psychologist, through the craziness of the 'magic mushroom' research at Harvard, to Leary's days as the major voice of the optimistic counter-cultural Left. ("turn on, tune in, drop out," remember?) Greenfield also follows the less talked-about aspects of Leary's life - his escape from prison, his clash in Algeria with Eldridge Cleaver's violent revolutionism, his total about-face to become a DEA informer, and his later interest in space travel and the Internet as tools to inform consciousness. Greenfield pulls no punches - he is sympathetic to Leary's idealism but appropriately critical of his narcissism and emotional immaturity, particularly in regard to his children. Amazing to notice documented evidence of how much Tim Leary influenced the life of America.

Although Greenfield finds his subject as exasperating as he finds him fascinating, he has mainly let the facts speak for themselves and has given us one of the funniest, most panoramic and gut-wrenching biographical portrayals ever written. Seriously, his rendering of Leary's death-bed scene alone is as unforgettable as Garbo's Camille. I got a far more edifying and really complimentary sense of who Leary was from Greenfield's account than I did from Leary's own writings or from attending Leary's appearance at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in '67, encountering him one-on-one at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in '93 or attending his lecture at a New Age expo a few months after that. It's also utterly beside the point that Greenfield left out so many of the good times. I have my own share of 60's memories, and there are plenty of published accounts of others' high times (including Leary's own). His endnotes reveal that although he emphasizes his subject's dark side, Greenfield's findings are based on his own careful research. To take this biographer to task because he didn't center his book around Leary's writing or ideas, as Nicosia did for Kerouac (in Memory Babe) or Schumacher did for Ginsberg (in Dharma Lion), is to miss the point entirely. Leary's contribution was not, despite his prodigious output, as an author. (See Jim DeKorne's Psychedelic Shamanism, pages 4-5 for his appraisal of Leary, Metzner and Alpert's deficient The Psychedelic Experience.) And I don't think that Burroughs's and McKenna's commendations of the man are for being a party animal or for having such a profound sense of humor or even for having the deepest take on the psychedelic experience. Leary's contribution was being the guy that made it possible for guys like me to take acid before it became illegal in '66. Greenfield doesn't exactly say that Leary was wrong to do that--does he? While he quotes Art Linkletter's tirades against Leary and acid, Greenfield also is careful to note that the autopsy evidence indicates that Linkletter's daughter was NOT on acid when she killed herself. He quotes several people blaming Leary for what went wrong, but also quotes Leary asking whether we should blame Einstein for the atom bomb--and more or less commends Leary for asking a good question. Mainly, he just says that Leary did a lot of ugly, dishonest and heartbreaking things besides making acid available. For example, I for one did not know that Leary was ready, willing and able to betray anyone--even his beloved Rosemary--to get out of prison. This is good news, Leary-lovers! It means, quite obviously, that if you want to legitimately go on loving the guy, you're just going to have to forgive everyone who was, is or will be likewise ready, willing and able to betray YOU--doesn't it? The prevailing attitude now is: "My mind's made up. Don't bother me with the facts!" But I didn't take exception to Nicosia's portrayal of Kerouac's total irresponsibility toward his own daughter,

Greenfield's biography of Timothy Leary is a remarkable piece of scholarship. It is well researched, superbly written, and insightful. The strength of the biography is not only Greenfield's depiction of Timothy Leary but also of the psychedelic craze of the 60s and 70s, and its key figures. Even though this is a long book and full of information, I could hardly put it down. At times it read like the adventures of Indiana Jones, and I couldn't wait to see how Leary once again gets out of the mess he has created such as the silencing at West Point, dismissal from Harvard, drug busts, prison break, senate hearings, asylum in Algiers with Eldridge Cleaver, deportation, or solitary at Folsom Prison. Yet, he survived all situations unscathed, and continued living in high style, spending the last decade or two of his life in Beverly Hills surrounded by movie stars, writers and artists. He never seemed to run out of people (men or women) who were willing to do anything for him, often against their best interest. He moved through relationships much the same way as he moved through other events in his life. They were episodes, and as one episode ended another began. Many ruined lives were left in his wake, and the most tragic figures were his children (and grandchildren). Undoubtedly, Timothy Leary was a charismatic leader who caught the imagination of a wide variety of people of all educational levels, men and women, young and old, and from many walks of like. However, at the end you can't help but wonder What's This All About, Leary?

This new biography of Leary presents him as a complex character full of flaws and tragic heroism. In particular, Leary's tragic personal life stands in stark contrast here to his larger-than-life counterculture heroics. Whether you love him or hate him, you will have to admit that his life makes for an amazing story. Greenfield tells that story in fluid prose, weaving together disparate first-hand accounts into a detailed chronological portrait. If the book has a flaw, it is that Greenfield perhaps loses his own voice at times, relying too much on quotes from others to tell the story. But, the flip side of that is that he does not let his own agenda interfere with telling the story. Another minor criticism is that he could have helped the reader out at places by providing more date references to keep the chronology clear -- there were times I had to go back several pages to remind myself what year was being discussed. But, at the end of this remarkable book, those flaws are minor indeed. If you have any interest at all in Leary or the '60s counterculture, this book comes highly recommended. Since reading it, I have found myself constantly thinking about Leary and processing the meaning of his life and times. That is what good books are all about.