Owsley and Me: My LSD Family

by Rhoney Gissen Stanley, Tom Davis

Owsley and Me is a love story set against the background of the Psychedelic Revolution of the '60s. Owsley "Bear" Stanley met her in Berkeley in 1965, when LSD was still legal and he was the world's largest producer and distributor of LSD. Rhoney found herself working in an LSD laboratory, and the third corner in a love triangle. We all know the stories from the '60s—but never from the point of view of a woman finding her way through twisted trails of love, jealousy, and paranoia, all the while personally connecting to the most iconic events and people of her time.

Bear supported the Grateful Dead in their early years and gave away as much LSD as he sold—millions of hits. He designed and engineered the infamous Wall of Sound system of the early '70s, just before he began his two years in prison, with Rhoney raising their infant son. He died one year ago, but the era he helped create is now being rediscovered by a new generation interested in the meaning of it all.

Genres: Music, Drugs, Nonfiction, History, Biography, Memoir, Cultural

260 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2013

Reviews

[Denny Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and laughed at the bad reviews. If you didn't go through those times and the LSD experience and the culture it spawned, then make an honest attempt to keep that fact in mind while criticizing her story or the way she relates it. Owsley stands above the times he created. He was anomalous and other worldly and probably had to be to do what he did and then able to survive the ordeal when so many others perished or dove into obscurity. I recommend this book because it delivers a healthy insight into what happened and serves as a antidote to the legends and other nonsense retold about LSD and the late 60's bay area music scene.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Owsley and Me: My LSD Family by Rhoney Glissen Stanley with Tom Davis (Monkfish Book Publishing 2012) (362.294092). Augustus Owsley Stanley III was California's leading underground chemist of the 1960's and the legendary brewmaster of the famous “Owsley Acid”, which was widely regarded as the purest LSD-25 synthesized in California' during the heyday of the hippies. Owsley started brewing the stuff when it was not yet illegal in California. Owsley had the foresight to purchase the necessary precursor chemicals required to create LSD before the USDA was able to cut off the world supply. Make no mistake, the Sixties would not have been what they were without Owsley: the number of doses of LSD which he created were in the millions, much of which he gave away free in and around his home base of San Francisco. He was the original patron of the Grateful Dead as well as a sound engineer of the highest caliber. This book was written by a spurned lover with whom Owsley fathered a child. Owsley died in his adopted home of Australia in a car crash in 2011. He was a fascinating guy who marched only to his own drummer. My rating: 7/10, finished 4/24/15. Reread 7/11/18.

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

one of my fave books ever. such an honest telling of the times i loved getting this inside look.

[Glenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rhoney Stanley's memoir of her relationship with Owsley Stanley (the father of her son, sound engineer for the Grateful Dead and expert LSD chemist) reads somewhat like an acid trip. Certain details are magnified to a significance far beyond reason and then there are jarring and abrupt shifts in space and time. There's a disturbing lack of insight into both the narrator and the subject, but also tons of insider stories on the creation myths of the psychedelic movement. The three star rating is based on my obsessive interest into the holy trinity of psychedelia: Leary and Alpert, Kesey and the Pranksters, and Owsley and the Dead. Adjust down to two stars if you don't care about another angle on that story.

[Kalle Wescott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read /Owsley and Me: My LSD Family/, by Rhoney Gissen Stanley:

http://overweeninggeneralist.blogspot...

This book was amazing! I knew Bear, but since he was rather private (as anyone who manufactured over 5 million hits of LSD should be, especially those who had already served time in prison). Thus, I learn a *lot* about Bear through the eyes of his girlfriend Rhoney, later his wife.

Rhoney's descriptions of tripping are some of the best I've seen. I was also fascinated by her accounts of the process to manufacture acid. High-ly recommended.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had really high expectations for this book, and it failed to live up to most. With solid connections to both the Dead and LSD, I figured this book would have an entertaining story to tell; unfortunately most of the story here is lost in the flat, disjointed writing. There are certainly some decent moments, and it picks up a bit in quality in the home stretch, but overall this book contains very little "Owsley and me" and a whole lot of rather shallow documentation of the movers and shakers in the San Francisco scene of the 60's instead. Overall, a letdown.

[Anthony M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much needed female voice in a sea of men writing about the dead/San Francisco scene, fascinating, every page filled with unique insight.

“All of us had been burned by our blood relatives. Our parents’ words colored our thoughts, but it was up to us to take that heritage and find right action.”

[Bruce Hollett · Rating 4 out of 5]

So many great stories.

[Phil Redman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting memoir of an East Coast Jewish girl mixed up in the high-times of the 60s San Francisco drug and music scene. A very personal remembrance, Rhoney does not over-romanticize the times as other documentations have done, but gives you her version, a slice of life with amazing details and insightful incidents of key characters in the scene. Great for anyone interested in that time of life. I have read quite a few things about this era as I am a fan of the music and art, and this was near or even at the top. Very enjoyable.

[Rowland Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing in this book is an abomination. A twelve year old would likely have done better. There is almost no organization to it, trivialities abound and the author, in my eyes anyway, is almost completely unsympathetic. For those with an interest in the rock music scene of the 60’s in the Bay Area there are some choice vignettes but they are buried in turgid prose. Only read this if you are researching the period or have an unabated interest in the Grateful Dead.

[Rob Blackwell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Certainly a neat little memoir. Rhoney has a fascinating peer behind the curtain at one of the most influential people during a fulcrum point in American history. This book is a really deep look at Owsley Stanley and his cult of personality. I only wish more of Rhoney's extracurricular life was in it. She's a fascinating person surrounded by fascinating people. It's a bit of a shame that she mostly chose to document her time with Owsley.

[Hollie Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this look into the early making of LSD and the politics of the relationships between the people involved in that world.

[Patty Laure · Rating 3 out of 5]

LSD and the Grateful Dead scene..

[Isham Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another crazy character in LSD history, told by a female partner and co-conspirator.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting for what it is, the memoir of one of Owseley Stanley's ex-partners, mother of his son.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reviewer on Amazon called this book "gossipy and superficial" and I would agree. This was a big disappointment to me since I was really excited to read an account of the psychedelic era from the point of view of a woman for once, but there was no depth. Just a long list of getting "very high" on LSD constantly and letting the King of LSD treat you like poop and eventually having his baby. I was visiting San Francisco when this book came out and just missed the book signing in The Haight, but now I think its not such a loss.

The writing is terrible and even with a co-author, its an abomination. By the way, the foreward written by the co-author says, "Writing for women has always been a challenge for me..." Um, I think WRITING is a challenge for BOTH of you. Why does he insert this gender bias from the beginning? I wonder if she got co-opted by the male co-author...It would fit with the personality of Rhoney presented in the book which was wimpy and not at all feminist in my opinion.

The entire book is full of short sentences strung together - this happens, then that, Jerry Garcia, name drop, name drop and oh yea, they got very high. And oh, I feel like I could maybe be happier without this jerk that is constantly cheating on me, but I can't stay away. Yeesh, I can't believe I read the whole thing, but it was like a trainwreck and I couldn't look away. I gave it 2 stars only because the trash is somewhat entertaining.

Eventually you're led to believe Rhoney gets herself together and becomes a self-sufficient orthodontist (her dad was a dentist so I guess she didn't completely cut ties with her life before Owsley), but there's never any depth or detail about how she gets there or the emotions she feels on this journey. There's just a lot of confusion, anger and sadness, but you don't feel empathy with her or anyone she comes into contact with in this drugged out scene. In fact, everyone in her circle sounds narcissistic and shallow, only out to get "very very high" (how often can she describe getting loaded in just this same way? At least once per page...). Maybe this is the truth about the era, how would I know?

[Steve Johgart · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book would have been much less interesting had I not already read several other books on the same era of early San Francisco psychedelic culture. This book gives some insight into some of the characters who only are on the periphery of the other books I've read. I always thought I'd have enjoyed the somewhat surreal, creative, freewheeling lifestyle of those days, but this story, like the others, tells a tale of craziness well beyond my most extreme comfort levels.

The book, if accurate, makes no one out to be heroic at all - most everyone has serious flaws. Rhona Stanley comes off as clinging and neurotically insecure, and Owsley is pictured as probably pathologically OCD (although it was that obsession to detail that no doubt led to the quality of his product).

I was particularly interested that if the details are accurate, to someone who actually knows chemistry (as I don't, and thus can't judge the accuracy), there are probably enough details regarding Owsley's methodology to impart a decent tutorial of his LSD synthesis and purification techniques, although the actual raw materials are never specified.

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of things that "Owsley and Me" isn't. There are many better books about sex/drugs/rock/the Dead/the history of LSD/the 60s, maaaaaaan, etc., and it's probably necessary to have read a fair bit of them for "Owsley and Me" to have maximum impact. Long one of the most mysterious figures in the history of the American counterculture, the images alone in this book more than quadruple previously known photographs of the legendary acid maker. His ex's memoir is an invaluable look at Owsley's life that will have to stand until somebody inevitably (hopefully!) writes a serious biography. And even after that point, "Owsley and Me" will retain its charms, I suspect, a fundamentally truthful if occasionally factually blurry and technically clunky account that connects many micro-dots.

[Wilson Trivino · Rating 4 out of 5]

The psychedelic 60s have a certain romance to them but in reality it was just a bunch of kids trying to make it.
Rhoney Gissen Stanley paints a vivid portrait as she captures in her memoir Owsley and Me: My LSD Family.
She shares how she crossed paths with one of the premium producers of LSD Owsley “Bear” Stanley. The met one night when his forward advances swept her up. She was in the heart of the psychedelic revolution and got a front row seat of the influences of such greats of the Grateful Dead and even taking part in Woodstock.
However, this story is also about finding her way, getting sober, and being the best mom to her and Bear’s child, Starfish.
A very interesting look inside the age of Aquarius and an age of innocence when the world was full of possibility even through the fog of drugs.

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

On rereading this book 8 years later, I have changed my opinion and review. We have all been sad, needy people and the author is no exception. I felt her pain and hope that life has improved. What follows is my first review.
"The “author” is one of the most annoying people I’ve ever come across. I’m a big fan of Owsley, and his product, and figured that I would enjoy the book because I was around during that period. But I had trouble getting past the needy, clingy nature of the author’s relationship with Owsley. I won’t blame it on the drugs, because we were all pretty stoned during that decade. I wouldn’t recommend the book to anyone, because you can find out the facts about Owsley online and spare yourself the dreadful, redundant detail of this sad little life."

[Renee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book up at an independent book store under a staff recommendation and I can't understand why.
The story centers around the authors experience with Owsley "Bear" Stanley, one of the largest LSD manufactures and distributors in the country in the 1960's.
Lots of free love, commune living, acid tripping and venereal disease spreading hippies who were the most self absorbed group I've ever read about.
The book was interesting enough to read, but the descriptions of their general lifestyles left me in need of a good scrubbing under a hot shower.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was mildly disappointed by this book. I was interested in the Grateful Dead vs Owsley connection to begin with and I wish that this book revealled more detail in that respect. I understand that this was written from one person's perspective but it is not the one that I was interested in. I did not care for the carnal details that were revealed by the author, however there may be some that may enjoy them. The book was not poorly written, it just wasn't written in a style that matches my taste. I'm sure that there must be a better book out there that details Owsley's life.

[Amy Eighttrack · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot. I wished that it didn't end. Co-written by Tom Davis of Franken and Davis fame.

If you have any interest in the psychedelic era and its music, you'll like this, too. She definitely has a point of view and offers a rare, authentic, valuable insider's perspective. Though I may not agree with her assessments, I was glad that she shared them here. The book was a turn-on in more ways than one.

[J.C.]

Quitting after a week and 80 pages. I couldn't take it anymore. I mean I knew it was going to be a tough book to get through (in a excruciatingly boring read kind of way, not in a difficult Tolstoyian kind of way) but about page 60 I really started to question the accuracy of her story, because it happened over 50 years ago now, and she was high on LSD for most of it. This whole book might have been a total hallucination.

[Monica · Rating 1 out of 5]

The dialogue is poorly written, and the writing is not that great overall, which is odd, considering there was a co-author. Owsley sounds like a know-it-all asshole, and Rhoney just seems like a confused hippie chick. This might be more interesting if you're interested in the Grateful Dead and their history, but otherwise, skip it.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun trip down anecdotal acid-head lane. Lots of defining episodes from the depths of the hippie counter culture. It's great to read how Owsley had the vision to fuse LSD and music for a higher level of consciousness. The truth was absolute...you just needed to take the right dose to see it clearly.

[Hank Kirton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another fascinating life story torpedoed by poor writing. Tom Davis seems to have been no help at all. Worthwhile for the time capsule aspect but I liked Owsley a hell of a lot better when he was a mythic, underground figure.

[rebecca hutchinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting,compelling,fabulous writing

clear writing,picture perfect words,,like your are living their life with them,what I didn't like,left some things out the abortions ,too much of the making of the LSD,although some would want the recipes,

[Mat Brewster · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insiders guide to the 60s counter culture by Owsley's sometimes girlfriend. Its an interesting read though she's more interested in pining over Owsley (who was also involved with another woman) rather that digging into the cultural revolution going on about her.

[Ariadna73 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found it a little bit boring, and could not really connect to whatever she was trying to convey... too much acid, I guess ;)