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The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary
“Shines a light on one of the twentieth century’s most amazing untold life stories. ... An essential read—and an unforgettable trip.” —Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road
“Cahalan details a piece of lost but fascinating history, the story of a woman who embodied an era of freedom, experimentation, and psychedelic adventure. Meticulously reported and beautifully crafted.” —Susan Orlean
The untold story of the woman who played a critical role in bringing psychedelics into the mainstream—until her audacious exploits forced her into the shadows—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory. She was a beatnik, a psychonaut, and a true believer who tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time.
Long overlooked by those who have venerated her husband, Rosemary spent her life on the forefront of the counterculture, working with Leary on his books and speeches, sewing his clothing, and shaping—for better and for worse—the media’s narrative about LSD. Ultimately, Rosemary sacrificed everything for the safety of her fellow psychedelic pioneers and the preservation of her husband’s legacy.
Drawing from a wealth of interviews, diaries, archives, and unpublished sources, Susannah Cahalan writes the definitive portrait of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, reclaiming her narrative and her voice from those who dismissed her. Page-turning, revelatory, and utterly compelling, The Acid Queen shines an overdue spotlight on a pioneering psychedelic seeker.
“Cahalan details a piece of lost but fascinating history, the story of a woman who embodied an era of freedom, experimentation, and psychedelic adventure. Meticulously reported and beautifully crafted.” —Susan Orlean
The untold story of the woman who played a critical role in bringing psychedelics into the mainstream—until her audacious exploits forced her into the shadows—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory. She was a beatnik, a psychonaut, and a true believer who tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time.
Long overlooked by those who have venerated her husband, Rosemary spent her life on the forefront of the counterculture, working with Leary on his books and speeches, sewing his clothing, and shaping—for better and for worse—the media’s narrative about LSD. Ultimately, Rosemary sacrificed everything for the safety of her fellow psychedelic pioneers and the preservation of her husband’s legacy.
Drawing from a wealth of interviews, diaries, archives, and unpublished sources, Susannah Cahalan writes the definitive portrait of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, reclaiming her narrative and her voice from those who dismissed her. Page-turning, revelatory, and utterly compelling, The Acid Queen shines an overdue spotlight on a pioneering psychedelic seeker.
383 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 22, 2025
115 people are currently reading
6897 people want to read
About the author
Susannah Cahalan
4 books2,604 followersSusannah Cahalan is the New York Times bestselling author of "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness," a memoir about her struggle with a rare autoimmune disease of the brain. She writes for the New York Post. Her work has also been featured in the New York Times, Scientific American Magazine, Glamour, Psychology Today, and others.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
March 17, 2025
They say behind every great man is a great woman, and Rosemary Woodruff Leary's story is no different. While Timothy Leary may not be held in high esteem by many of the institutions that he sought to belong to and then turn around and rebel against, Rosemary was there by his side throughout some of his biggest moments in the 1960s, and not only as a companion, but as a person with a vital role in Leary's image and future legacy.
It is important to tell the stories of these women, even if they don't stand up to the modern image of independence and feminism, even if they seem to retreat into perfect 1950s housewives when the man's ego is bruised. Rosemary and the other woman of these counterculture movements were irreplaceable in what they did, even if some of the men thought that they were. Rosemary's story is unlike any other, and I am glad that it has been able to be told in this way.
*Book provided by NetGalley
It is important to tell the stories of these women, even if they don't stand up to the modern image of independence and feminism, even if they seem to retreat into perfect 1950s housewives when the man's ego is bruised. Rosemary and the other woman of these counterculture movements were irreplaceable in what they did, even if some of the men thought that they were. Rosemary's story is unlike any other, and I am glad that it has been able to be told in this way.
*Book provided by NetGalley
May 19, 2025
I only knew of Timothy Leary peripherally [from different books I have read about that era], and had never [that I remember] even heard of Rosemary before this book, so I really went into this blind.
Overall, this was just an okay read for me [I love the author and in all honesty, took it when it was offered simply because of that]. Clearly, it is very well researched and the writing was also excellent; the problem is, even good writing cannot mask meh if the person being written about is not enjoyable to read about [this was the case for me. It is absoutely not because of the writing. I just did not care about Rosemary after awhile and thought her choices were...questionable]. I cannot deny that Rosemary did some amazing things, but overall, I really struggled to see why she made the choices she did [her whole personal was wrapped around one man, even after he completely betrays her] and...I don't know, I just found that I didn't really like her.
What I did like was some of the history of that time frame; it was interesting to read about all the people that were actually involved in this culture [the stories of Timothy's children was some of the saddest parts of this book; what a crime that really was] and how it ultimately affected everyone, good and bad.
While I am not sorry that I read/listened [the author narrates and she does a really excellent job here] to this, I will admit I was glad when it was finally over.
I was invited to read/review this by the publisher [PENGUIN GROUP Viking Penguin/Viking] and I thank them, Susannah Cahalan, and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Overall, this was just an okay read for me [I love the author and in all honesty, took it when it was offered simply because of that]. Clearly, it is very well researched and the writing was also excellent; the problem is, even good writing cannot mask meh if the person being written about is not enjoyable to read about [this was the case for me. It is absoutely not because of the writing. I just did not care about Rosemary after awhile and thought her choices were...questionable]. I cannot deny that Rosemary did some amazing things, but overall, I really struggled to see why she made the choices she did [her whole personal was wrapped around one man, even after he completely betrays her] and...I don't know, I just found that I didn't really like her.
What I did like was some of the history of that time frame; it was interesting to read about all the people that were actually involved in this culture [the stories of Timothy's children was some of the saddest parts of this book; what a crime that really was] and how it ultimately affected everyone, good and bad.
While I am not sorry that I read/listened [the author narrates and she does a really excellent job here] to this, I will admit I was glad when it was finally over.
I was invited to read/review this by the publisher [PENGUIN GROUP Viking Penguin/Viking] and I thank them, Susannah Cahalan, and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
March 6, 2025
Pretty good and really thought provoking. This was my era. The position Rosemary created for herself as second class citizen seems shocking. The role of women as cooks, cleaners, and support staff in her various groups is appalling. The acid culture is interesting for a while. But Leary sounds like such a demanding and narcissistic person, and they both seem so entitled and thoughtless, that it gets hard to read. Though she was a fugitive for years, Rosemary seemed fortunate to find people who made huge efforts for her, or for some theory that they assigned her to represent. My psychedelics and my living arrangements were not quite like this, but this account was great for memory and comparison.
May 5, 2025
Very well researched and written.
June 12, 2025
A tale as old as time - a brilliant woman doing all the work for a famous man! An interesting perspective to learn more about the rise of psychedelics, the war on drugs, and SF. Would recommend.
May 31, 2025
I usually like a more distanced and clinical tone in a biography and in non-fiction generally, but ultimately the author's respect for her subject is admirable. Woodruff Leary's story is fascinating and worth telling, and deserves to stand apart from Timothy Leary's.
October 22, 2025
I honestly didn’t know what to expect with this one. I randomly picked it up at Barnes & Noble because I’ve always loved Susannah Cahalan’s writing, Brain on Fire is one of those memoirs that stuck with me for years.
While I didn’t know much about Rosemary Leary, I was, of course, familiar with Timothy Leary, the controversial psychologist often associated with the psychedelic movement of the 1960s.
In The Acid Queen, Cahalan turns her journalistic lens toward Rosemary, Timothy’s overlooked partner and muse, uncovering the story of a woman who was far more than just a footnote in countercultural history. Rosemary was deeply involved in the early psychedelic scene, blending intellect, intuition, and rebellion in a time when women’s voices were often dismissed. The book explores the rise and unraveling of their relationship, the cultural upheaval of the era, and the lasting impact of those experiments with consciousness.
While I appreciated the deep research and Cahalan’s sharp writing, I didn’t connect with the story as much as I hoped. At times it felt more like a historical deep dive than a narrative, and I found myself wishing for more emotional depth or insight into Rosemary’s inner world. That said, it was fascinating to learn about this chapter of history through a woman’s perspective, especially one so often erased from the record.
While I didn’t know much about Rosemary Leary, I was, of course, familiar with Timothy Leary, the controversial psychologist often associated with the psychedelic movement of the 1960s.
In The Acid Queen, Cahalan turns her journalistic lens toward Rosemary, Timothy’s overlooked partner and muse, uncovering the story of a woman who was far more than just a footnote in countercultural history. Rosemary was deeply involved in the early psychedelic scene, blending intellect, intuition, and rebellion in a time when women’s voices were often dismissed. The book explores the rise and unraveling of their relationship, the cultural upheaval of the era, and the lasting impact of those experiments with consciousness.
While I appreciated the deep research and Cahalan’s sharp writing, I didn’t connect with the story as much as I hoped. At times it felt more like a historical deep dive than a narrative, and I found myself wishing for more emotional depth or insight into Rosemary’s inner world. That said, it was fascinating to learn about this chapter of history through a woman’s perspective, especially one so often erased from the record.
July 22, 2025
Very interesting and engaging.
August 8, 2025
It’s shocking how times have changed and the thoughts and regulations for experiments. Also. Complete cult, this made me go down a rabbit hole!
October 16, 2025
Doing copious amounts of LSD makes you an asshole, noted.
December 7, 2025
Spoilers, but I’ve got some really good links
WWRD?
https://48hills.org/2025/05/passing-t...
https://chacruna.net/rosemary-woodruf...
https://glossary.psywellpath.com/edge...
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/20...
Rich NYers paying for the opportunity to be sober & silent when not in TL's lectures at the mansion
25 days in jail changed her, fame changed him. No evidence of rethinking pushing this exact case that included his 18 year old daughter hiding a silver egg with RW's drugs in her panties.
"You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind"
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews...
The Summer of Love
https://www.timesunion.com/projects/2...
The Millbrook magic began fading, religious awakening & rank defilement simultaneously. Less enlightment & more fucked up on booze & boredom, not the sacrament.
TL's son said he called his children "milestones around my neck"
Egofilled meditations, RW called it a shared delusion
TL continued touring & ranking everyone while she was a sexually available sisyphus. He also finally divorced his wife & a bitch about her behind her back & cheated in her flagrantly (acid love guru), children continuously neglected and abused, STDs skyrocketimg among population.
RW was meanwhile trying to get pregnant, despite real-life & dreamed reasons to not, destablized & eventually an acid overdose.
https://www.timesunion.com/projects/2...
Contemporaries: the Beatles, Aldous Huxley, NYC elites, Grateful Dead, Alice B Tolklas & Gertrude Stein, Peggy Hitchcock, Susan Firestone, Alvis Upitis, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Allen Ginsberg (title cred), Ram Das, Donovan, Abbie Hoffman, etc
They are married, he gets out of public life (except for lectures, etc etc) & media doesn't differentiate between street acid & the controlled clinical treatments. The Summer of Love & the assassinations of 1968 challenged TL's push to not vote or get involved. "Turn on tune in drop out" philosophyn. Ambient Hoffman said " your peace and love bullshit is leading youth down the garden path of fascism. You're creating a group of blissed-out pansies ripe for annihilation." TL pontificates about the huge amounts of LSD that could be released to cities. Owlsey Stanley & Melissa Cargill claim to have released 1.25M does between 65 & 67. https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-t...
Brotherhood of Eternal Love - dharma bum surfers, acid church & Afghanistan hash smugglers. Women came for free love, but if pregnant, choices were grim. "They were mere pleasure units."
RWL isn't getting pregnant & they are charged with possession again.
Assassinations, millie Massacre in Vietnam, bid for governor, The Montreal Bed-in & Lennon writes Come Tigether https://youtu.be/ftE8vr0WNus?si=V5Y-R...
(where a desperate guy seems to be fixated on profiting off of his clever friends & queen)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBeatles/c...
A young woman in their community died, full of LSD, police have more questions, then another death. RWL had 3 arrests in 5 years, TL 8. Art Linkletter blames TL for the death of his daughter Diane, TL doubles down saying that drug dealers are heros, Nixon teams up to create schedules, making illegal to even study some drugs, punishments included.
Surrogate Monarch
Attny Michael Kennedy & Elenora, represented people the AmeriKan government hated, people with passions of their time & his wife partner who guided clients. They get things done.
Sylvia McGaffin
The Weather Underground & probably the Kennedys help TL escape prison & she prepares a fluffed nest for his return. Meanwhile, J Edgar Hoover initiates the search & Nixon is obsessed & reckless.
Maia Baraka
https://aboutalgeria.com/2017/08/the-...
https://www.mondo2000.com/timothy-lea...
https://www.justingifford.com/cleaver...
https://allthatsinteresting.com/kathl...
Working for Palestine liberation, the Learys, codependent, want US revenge, TL was annoying everyone "Sit right! This ain't a hippy pad."
Paris, then Algiers with BPP Eldridge Cleaver & Kathleen, she read EC's book & saw playful cruelty, TL said the 2 men were alike. EC said they need political education. They were broke, an embarrassment. Meanwhile, charles Manson, elvis meets with nixon, BPP kidnapped & isolated them, but then a VV reporter came. https://archives.nypl.org/mss/23006
Marilyn Monroe
Can't give the lecture in Copenhagen because Nixon, so the Learys stayed with zerland hanging out with socialites while TL, back in a warm spotlight, framed disgusting racist stories about the BBP. Meanwhile, NYT publishes Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon papers regarding the secret war in Vietnam. TL is apprehended again on the day when they should conceive after all kinds of heavy aspirational fertility events, maybe turned in by an ally looking for bribes, TL is a total POS trying to send a letter to Hugh Hefer asking for help because it was all RWL's fault. A lot of ppl write in support, but very few recognize RWL at all. Councilwoman Loni Hancock was an exception, "What About Rosemary?"
https://themonthly.com/feature1611/
Once he's out & back "home" she deserves a break with a lover who answered a desparate plea for help which included bail, TL invites a local teenager to take her place.
Demeter
She smuggles hash in a burka in Afghanistan, lives in Sicily for a bit, and Montreal, still in hiding.
He asks to meet her again comma does some things with a little bit of respect but much of the intellectual property is not handled well. He acts like a total POS again and it seems like she finally realizes he has an empty heart, "a man who never had any concern except for his own myth.... He is convincing as long as there is not a moment's peace for reflecton." He bitterly cuts ties harder, and yet her influence is all over everything he does.
Then TL collude with the feds to get her and Michael Kennedy, so with her family's & his kids' support, she goes more underground.
Sarah Woodruff
Working where ever John Waters of Pink Flamingos hangs out under a pseudonym, a literary reference because of course.
TL is granted divorce, serves a bit of time & sells out all kinds of people including weatherman, his lawye r and some others.
Meanwhile, she & John are in exile again, him chasing, her looking to establish her third stage of life - not aphrodite, not a high priestess, but sober & wise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Lyman
Rosemary doesn't get published
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/ar...
Bill Ayers & Bernadine https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/...
https://www.grunge.com/964949/the-tra...
Cape cod allowed her a kind of freedom from the past, each phase of her life had took its own pound of flesh, compromises, sometimes impossible ones as she headed to the attainment of freedoms. Freedom of movement, freedom of love, freedom of the body, freedom of the mind, freedom from the ego & finally , one , that's the most hard won & confusing, the freedom to remain anonymous.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
Ms Everybody, age & weight as a costume
The force of them together. “She had stepped back into his vortex.”
TL "liberated" by 3-5 years diagnosis w/ prostate cancer, they married and he made her his executor more of a curse, death tour: gap ads, introducing Tool at Lollapolooza, "Turn on, boot up, jack in" the rise of transhumanism, Apple & Steve Jobs, beautiful assistants. She wishes she was more playful again, less serious.
John Updike: celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.
He literally left his front door open for celebrities and reporters. "You get the Timothy Leary you deserve." the gaunt genius said. He learned neither emotional intelligence nor empathy, called Kennedy "to forgive" him.
https://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...
WRyder gives the eulogy
RWL, abstaining herself, assists her friend Anita close to transitioning with an autumnal psychedelic ceremony, with her usual care for atmosphere, comfort & nourishment.
Epilogue
Her father was the Magician's assistant. RWL created a mythology around her character, conceived of a new legend, a muse on her own terms. Psychedelics were one way to unlock her potential tial within to alchemist herself as a main character in her own story. " The eyes of the audience must be on the assistant.When the magician's hands are distorting reality."
The mark of a true magician is imbuing others with the remarkable. The ability to locate the meaningful in the mundane & find magic in something that we had never noticed before, making us feel, whether we deserve it or not, that the magic is within us.
https://archives.nypl.org/mss/23932
WWRD?
https://48hills.org/2025/05/passing-t...
https://chacruna.net/rosemary-woodruf...
https://glossary.psywellpath.com/edge...
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/20...
Rich NYers paying for the opportunity to be sober & silent when not in TL's lectures at the mansion
25 days in jail changed her, fame changed him. No evidence of rethinking pushing this exact case that included his 18 year old daughter hiding a silver egg with RW's drugs in her panties.
"You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind"
http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews...
The Summer of Love
https://www.timesunion.com/projects/2...
The Millbrook magic began fading, religious awakening & rank defilement simultaneously. Less enlightment & more fucked up on booze & boredom, not the sacrament.
TL's son said he called his children "milestones around my neck"
Egofilled meditations, RW called it a shared delusion
TL continued touring & ranking everyone while she was a sexually available sisyphus. He also finally divorced his wife & a bitch about her behind her back & cheated in her flagrantly (acid love guru), children continuously neglected and abused, STDs skyrocketimg among population.
RW was meanwhile trying to get pregnant, despite real-life & dreamed reasons to not, destablized & eventually an acid overdose.
https://www.timesunion.com/projects/2...
Contemporaries: the Beatles, Aldous Huxley, NYC elites, Grateful Dead, Alice B Tolklas & Gertrude Stein, Peggy Hitchcock, Susan Firestone, Alvis Upitis, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Allen Ginsberg (title cred), Ram Das, Donovan, Abbie Hoffman, etc
They are married, he gets out of public life (except for lectures, etc etc) & media doesn't differentiate between street acid & the controlled clinical treatments. The Summer of Love & the assassinations of 1968 challenged TL's push to not vote or get involved. "Turn on tune in drop out" philosophyn. Ambient Hoffman said " your peace and love bullshit is leading youth down the garden path of fascism. You're creating a group of blissed-out pansies ripe for annihilation." TL pontificates about the huge amounts of LSD that could be released to cities. Owlsey Stanley & Melissa Cargill claim to have released 1.25M does between 65 & 67. https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-t...
Brotherhood of Eternal Love - dharma bum surfers, acid church & Afghanistan hash smugglers. Women came for free love, but if pregnant, choices were grim. "They were mere pleasure units."
RWL isn't getting pregnant & they are charged with possession again.
Assassinations, millie Massacre in Vietnam, bid for governor, The Montreal Bed-in & Lennon writes Come Tigether https://youtu.be/ftE8vr0WNus?si=V5Y-R...
(where a desperate guy seems to be fixated on profiting off of his clever friends & queen)
https://www.reddit.com/r/TheBeatles/c...
A young woman in their community died, full of LSD, police have more questions, then another death. RWL had 3 arrests in 5 years, TL 8. Art Linkletter blames TL for the death of his daughter Diane, TL doubles down saying that drug dealers are heros, Nixon teams up to create schedules, making illegal to even study some drugs, punishments included.
Surrogate Monarch
Attny Michael Kennedy & Elenora, represented people the AmeriKan government hated, people with passions of their time & his wife partner who guided clients. They get things done.
Sylvia McGaffin
The Weather Underground & probably the Kennedys help TL escape prison & she prepares a fluffed nest for his return. Meanwhile, J Edgar Hoover initiates the search & Nixon is obsessed & reckless.
Maia Baraka
https://aboutalgeria.com/2017/08/the-...
https://www.mondo2000.com/timothy-lea...
https://www.justingifford.com/cleaver...
https://allthatsinteresting.com/kathl...
Working for Palestine liberation, the Learys, codependent, want US revenge, TL was annoying everyone "Sit right! This ain't a hippy pad."
Paris, then Algiers with BPP Eldridge Cleaver & Kathleen, she read EC's book & saw playful cruelty, TL said the 2 men were alike. EC said they need political education. They were broke, an embarrassment. Meanwhile, charles Manson, elvis meets with nixon, BPP kidnapped & isolated them, but then a VV reporter came. https://archives.nypl.org/mss/23006
Marilyn Monroe
Can't give the lecture in Copenhagen because Nixon, so the Learys stayed with zerland hanging out with socialites while TL, back in a warm spotlight, framed disgusting racist stories about the BBP. Meanwhile, NYT publishes Daniel Ellsberg's Pentagon papers regarding the secret war in Vietnam. TL is apprehended again on the day when they should conceive after all kinds of heavy aspirational fertility events, maybe turned in by an ally looking for bribes, TL is a total POS trying to send a letter to Hugh Hefer asking for help because it was all RWL's fault. A lot of ppl write in support, but very few recognize RWL at all. Councilwoman Loni Hancock was an exception, "What About Rosemary?"
https://themonthly.com/feature1611/
Once he's out & back "home" she deserves a break with a lover who answered a desparate plea for help which included bail, TL invites a local teenager to take her place.
Demeter
She smuggles hash in a burka in Afghanistan, lives in Sicily for a bit, and Montreal, still in hiding.
He asks to meet her again comma does some things with a little bit of respect but much of the intellectual property is not handled well. He acts like a total POS again and it seems like she finally realizes he has an empty heart, "a man who never had any concern except for his own myth.... He is convincing as long as there is not a moment's peace for reflecton." He bitterly cuts ties harder, and yet her influence is all over everything he does.
Then TL collude with the feds to get her and Michael Kennedy, so with her family's & his kids' support, she goes more underground.
Sarah Woodruff
Working where ever John Waters of Pink Flamingos hangs out under a pseudonym, a literary reference because of course.
TL is granted divorce, serves a bit of time & sells out all kinds of people including weatherman, his lawye r and some others.
Meanwhile, she & John are in exile again, him chasing, her looking to establish her third stage of life - not aphrodite, not a high priestess, but sober & wise.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Lyman
Rosemary doesn't get published
https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/ar...
Bill Ayers & Bernadine https://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/...
https://www.grunge.com/964949/the-tra...
Cape cod allowed her a kind of freedom from the past, each phase of her life had took its own pound of flesh, compromises, sometimes impossible ones as she headed to the attainment of freedoms. Freedom of movement, freedom of love, freedom of the body, freedom of the mind, freedom from the ego & finally , one , that's the most hard won & confusing, the freedom to remain anonymous.
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-x...
Ms Everybody, age & weight as a costume
The force of them together. “She had stepped back into his vortex.”
TL "liberated" by 3-5 years diagnosis w/ prostate cancer, they married and he made her his executor more of a curse, death tour: gap ads, introducing Tool at Lollapolooza, "Turn on, boot up, jack in" the rise of transhumanism, Apple & Steve Jobs, beautiful assistants. She wishes she was more playful again, less serious.
John Updike: celebrity is a mask that eats into the face.
He literally left his front door open for celebrities and reporters. "You get the Timothy Leary you deserve." the gaunt genius said. He learned neither emotional intelligence nor empathy, called Kennedy "to forgive" him.
https://www.thesmokinggun.com/documen...
WRyder gives the eulogy
RWL, abstaining herself, assists her friend Anita close to transitioning with an autumnal psychedelic ceremony, with her usual care for atmosphere, comfort & nourishment.
Epilogue
Her father was the Magician's assistant. RWL created a mythology around her character, conceived of a new legend, a muse on her own terms. Psychedelics were one way to unlock her potential tial within to alchemist herself as a main character in her own story. " The eyes of the audience must be on the assistant.When the magician's hands are distorting reality."
The mark of a true magician is imbuing others with the remarkable. The ability to locate the meaningful in the mundane & find magic in something that we had never noticed before, making us feel, whether we deserve it or not, that the magic is within us.
https://archives.nypl.org/mss/23932
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 1, 2025
I thought the author put Timothy Leary and quite an unfavorable light. He certainly is made out to be uncaring self-centered egomaniacal. Limited depths of compassion. Now there must’ve been some redeeming qualities you would think if Rosemary Woodruff kept coming back to him. But we don’t see much of that from the authors narrative of their interactions. It almost makes rosemary seem like she was emotionally dependent, and unable to think straight that she would continually go back to someone that was psychologically manipulative and abusive to her.
But there certainly were an awful lot of names that I recognized in a bunch more that I didn’t recognize and being that I had a certain connection living along the panhandle in San Francisco just a couple blocks from Haight-Ashbury so yes, I did get home. I also lived in Laguna Beach and knew the Brotherhood of eternal life bookstore. Saw Timothy learn from a distance one time there. And spent lots of time sitting around Laguna getting high.
But there certainly were an awful lot of names that I recognized in a bunch more that I didn’t recognize and being that I had a certain connection living along the panhandle in San Francisco just a couple blocks from Haight-Ashbury so yes, I did get home. I also lived in Laguna Beach and knew the Brotherhood of eternal life bookstore. Saw Timothy learn from a distance one time there. And spent lots of time sitting around Laguna getting high.
June 7, 2025
Absolutely fascinatingly story about a selfless woman who had to deal with a narcissist love interest.
May 29, 2025
This book passed my acidhead boomer bullshit detector.
It is beautifully written and a fine tribute to the interesting subject and the oddball times.
I loved it.
It is beautifully written and a fine tribute to the interesting subject and the oddball times.
I loved it.
May 14, 2025
I love biographies of complicated counterculture women, and this one is full of rebellion and zest for life. Rosemary Woodruff Leary lived a fascinating life as the reigning “Acid Queen” alongside her notorious husband Dr. Timothy Leary, and Cahalan tells her story beautifully, from the psychedelic trips to the prison break to the time on the run with the Black Panthers in Algeria.
May 22, 2025
This deeply researched and well crafted biography reads like a novel. Loved it from start to finish.
August 21, 2025
Got this cuz it sounded like psychedelic Harley Quinn (and I’ve tripped dozens of times) since there’s a decades’ long back and forth w/ each other and illegal substances. In some ways, it’s crazier than fantasy w/ the Weather Underground helping Rosemary break out charismatic psych professor Tim Leary and run off to Algeria under the sketchy protections of the Black Panthers and their rapist leader, but, taking a step back…
I barely knew these people beyond the names but the writing is so lush, it fills you in full-fledged and name-drops so many celebrities across what I thought was a bigger swath of time than they’d be associated. So Rosemary and Tim are both on their second crumbling marriages when they meet though Tim stays in his when he’s w/ Rosemary for a looong time. Obviously, the author is bias towards Rosemary (easy when Tim is such a backstabbing fame-whore) though we do always have seedlings how Rosemary also loves to cheat/exaggerate/assume/lie pathologically to make things more poetic for her life. The amount of times Rosemary is called beautiful, you would think she was the baby of Marilyn Monroe and Fabio.
She hops from a woman-beater to druggie eccentrics, starting her journey into psychedelics kind of small and solo with mescaline therapy. She’s always described as fashionable and wannabe high society so she meets Tim at museums and book parties (she’s a super voracious reader despite never going to college). She knows Tim’s a philanderer and his first wife killed herself yet she pushes that aside, wrapped up in his catchy lines and jokes and confidence. Later on it seems she’ll often overlook Tim’s (and Alan Ginsberg’s) weird relationship w/ kids (his own young ones he does acid and DMT with and come out hating him) and whatever other half-naked runaways are at their Milbrook commune that’s always raided by police.
Always on thin ice for their speeches and play tours encouraging young folk to make LSD a way of life, the couple’s big event is when they’re arrested for weed seeds at the Mexican border. Wanting to teach the couple a lesson, the authorities throw the book at them with sentencing up to thirty years. This ushers in much support for Tim with letters from Eve Babitz and jazz musicians aplenty.
Though they’re always under the threat of prison time, they always seem to evade or shrug it off. Rosemary just wanders out of court halfway through her trial to visit Tim! While she was in jail before that, she was a maid (I didn’t know that was a thing, how Andy Griffith-like) and he goes on Rolling Stone interviews to not mention her and say the famous phrase “tune in, drop out”while ironically he cares so much about collegiate status like an elitist according to Rosemary.
I wasn’t aware they tried to
make their movement so religious, though maybe that was just for tax and image purposes, when it always had sexual overtones like a cult. A way for the dorky men to get girls and “pass them around.” To play communist and expect women and girls to cook and clean and lay for them. Atop that, there’s often big rumors of Tim wanting to reconcile with his wife pre and post divorce all while with Rosemary.
Her revenge or supposed practice of free love to throw back in his face? She sleeps with Tim’s best friend Ralph until Tim’s son catches them. And though they both get jealous, they do wind up marrying after a raid—perhaps just to shut Rosemary up at testimony or in general? She also goes on to love John, a college student while still advocating for Tim when he is sent to prison. She raises $150k+ from the Beetles and such for their legal fund since they’re always relying (think celeb facade rich) on the hospitality and gifts from others. Despite her dedication to his cause, he complains they got caught again cuz they stayed in Geneva to try for child. Something he’s always been wishy washy on and he’s the type to throw everybody under the bus. Meanwhile he can never lay low or quiet, always wanting to be life of the party and not hide his name or fame.
Eventually, she breaks up with him, hoping he’ll change her mind. She comes back in two weeks and he’s already got a girl living with him dressed, made up and perfumed like her amid his endless string.
One of his girls even offers money on Rosemary’s whereabouts as revenge. Tim works with the FBI, urging her to come out of hiding. He’s a huge slimy rat to everyone who helped him escape prison. Ram Das and Ginsberg call him out as turncoat.
Rosemary stayed on the lam, working small jobs under a new name. When Tim has cancer, they reconnect after 15 years though she’s more serious when he remained a silly showman. Everybody’s weirdly in favor of their reunion—perhaps just because of her money situation or the hippie dippy poetry of it all? They stay more like friends and focused on the cause still, though she seemed to hide her emotions on it even in her diary excerpts.
(By the last quarter of the book, they’re both dead and there’s a gigantic bibliography so don’t let the page count make you adverse to picking this up.)
I barely knew these people beyond the names but the writing is so lush, it fills you in full-fledged and name-drops so many celebrities across what I thought was a bigger swath of time than they’d be associated. So Rosemary and Tim are both on their second crumbling marriages when they meet though Tim stays in his when he’s w/ Rosemary for a looong time. Obviously, the author is bias towards Rosemary (easy when Tim is such a backstabbing fame-whore) though we do always have seedlings how Rosemary also loves to cheat/exaggerate/assume/lie pathologically to make things more poetic for her life. The amount of times Rosemary is called beautiful, you would think she was the baby of Marilyn Monroe and Fabio.
She hops from a woman-beater to druggie eccentrics, starting her journey into psychedelics kind of small and solo with mescaline therapy. She’s always described as fashionable and wannabe high society so she meets Tim at museums and book parties (she’s a super voracious reader despite never going to college). She knows Tim’s a philanderer and his first wife killed herself yet she pushes that aside, wrapped up in his catchy lines and jokes and confidence. Later on it seems she’ll often overlook Tim’s (and Alan Ginsberg’s) weird relationship w/ kids (his own young ones he does acid and DMT with and come out hating him) and whatever other half-naked runaways are at their Milbrook commune that’s always raided by police.
Always on thin ice for their speeches and play tours encouraging young folk to make LSD a way of life, the couple’s big event is when they’re arrested for weed seeds at the Mexican border. Wanting to teach the couple a lesson, the authorities throw the book at them with sentencing up to thirty years. This ushers in much support for Tim with letters from Eve Babitz and jazz musicians aplenty.
Though they’re always under the threat of prison time, they always seem to evade or shrug it off. Rosemary just wanders out of court halfway through her trial to visit Tim! While she was in jail before that, she was a maid (I didn’t know that was a thing, how Andy Griffith-like) and he goes on Rolling Stone interviews to not mention her and say the famous phrase “tune in, drop out”while ironically he cares so much about collegiate status like an elitist according to Rosemary.
I wasn’t aware they tried to
make their movement so religious, though maybe that was just for tax and image purposes, when it always had sexual overtones like a cult. A way for the dorky men to get girls and “pass them around.” To play communist and expect women and girls to cook and clean and lay for them. Atop that, there’s often big rumors of Tim wanting to reconcile with his wife pre and post divorce all while with Rosemary.
Her revenge or supposed practice of free love to throw back in his face? She sleeps with Tim’s best friend Ralph until Tim’s son catches them. And though they both get jealous, they do wind up marrying after a raid—perhaps just to shut Rosemary up at testimony or in general? She also goes on to love John, a college student while still advocating for Tim when he is sent to prison. She raises $150k+ from the Beetles and such for their legal fund since they’re always relying (think celeb facade rich) on the hospitality and gifts from others. Despite her dedication to his cause, he complains they got caught again cuz they stayed in Geneva to try for child. Something he’s always been wishy washy on and he’s the type to throw everybody under the bus. Meanwhile he can never lay low or quiet, always wanting to be life of the party and not hide his name or fame.
Eventually, she breaks up with him, hoping he’ll change her mind. She comes back in two weeks and he’s already got a girl living with him dressed, made up and perfumed like her amid his endless string.
One of his girls even offers money on Rosemary’s whereabouts as revenge. Tim works with the FBI, urging her to come out of hiding. He’s a huge slimy rat to everyone who helped him escape prison. Ram Das and Ginsberg call him out as turncoat.
Rosemary stayed on the lam, working small jobs under a new name. When Tim has cancer, they reconnect after 15 years though she’s more serious when he remained a silly showman. Everybody’s weirdly in favor of their reunion—perhaps just because of her money situation or the hippie dippy poetry of it all? They stay more like friends and focused on the cause still, though she seemed to hide her emotions on it even in her diary excerpts.
(By the last quarter of the book, they’re both dead and there’s a gigantic bibliography so don’t let the page count make you adverse to picking this up.)
April 27, 2025
At one point in their lives, they had served as each other’s liberators, and together they would liberate the consciousness of countless people during the turbulent 1960s. Rosemary Woodruff was familiar with the mystical as she watched her father perform tricks in front of wonderstruck audiences in the Midwest. A supernatural experience Rosemary had in her youth was impactful enough in her mind that she desired to replicate it. However, her fateful meeting with Dr. Timothy Leary was decades away.
Rosemary’s first attempt at a long-lasting relationship ended after a year, a marriage to a brutish military man whom she erased from most of her life story. She moved to New York, where she found work as a model and later as a flight attendant. The jobs proved relatively unfulfilling, but Rosemary got her fulfillment through books, as her appetite for knowledge was voracious. She found love again as she married a musician, yet his emotional abuse and infidelity quickly spoiled their union. Rosemary’s first experience with a psychedelic substance, Peyote, put her in a more assertive frame of mind in ending a subsequent relationship. Her quest to expand her mind had led her to Millbrook, NY, where something revolutionary was happening.
By the time Rosemary met Leary, he was well known. His research using Psilocybin at Harvard (the Concord Prison Experiment) had garnered him headlines during the early 1960s. However, his advocacy for mind-altering drugs irked those in the Harvard hierarchy, and he was fired. Despite losing his job, he had benefactors willing to fund his work. By the time Rosemary and Leary became an item, he was preaching the benefits of LSD at the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook.
Rosemary and Leary consummated their relationship shortly after he helped her flee New York and an abusive boyfriend. The couple married in 1967 and was soon spreading the gospel of LSD to the blossoming counterculture in the United States. Their residence at Millbrook was terminated as a result of law enforcement raids, and Leary became a target for police scrutiny wherever he went. As his loyal spouse, Rosemary would share the target. By the early 1970s, they were at a crossroads as each was looking at lengthy jail sentences. Leary cut a deal, which served as the ultimate betrayal to both his wife and the counterculture movement.
THE ACID QUEEN is a revealing and fascinating biography of a woman who was often outshone by her infamous and influential spouse. Rosemary Woodruff was a smart, charming and spiritual person who believed in her husband and his initial mission in expanding the consciousness of the masses. The trials and tribulations she endured as the wife and partner of the notorious Dr. Timothy Leary ranged from jail time and a life on the run to a brief confinement in Algeria under the eye of the Black Panthers. Her story is about a search for identity and how it was discovered after years of adversity.
Susannah Cahalan (BRAIN ON FIRE) has written an extensive and worthwhile book about a misunderstood and often maligned figure. Her excellent research seeks to dispel misconceptions about Rosemary while illuminating Leary’s deceitful nature. This is a first-class biography.
Reviewed by Philip Zozzaro
Rosemary’s first attempt at a long-lasting relationship ended after a year, a marriage to a brutish military man whom she erased from most of her life story. She moved to New York, where she found work as a model and later as a flight attendant. The jobs proved relatively unfulfilling, but Rosemary got her fulfillment through books, as her appetite for knowledge was voracious. She found love again as she married a musician, yet his emotional abuse and infidelity quickly spoiled their union. Rosemary’s first experience with a psychedelic substance, Peyote, put her in a more assertive frame of mind in ending a subsequent relationship. Her quest to expand her mind had led her to Millbrook, NY, where something revolutionary was happening.
By the time Rosemary met Leary, he was well known. His research using Psilocybin at Harvard (the Concord Prison Experiment) had garnered him headlines during the early 1960s. However, his advocacy for mind-altering drugs irked those in the Harvard hierarchy, and he was fired. Despite losing his job, he had benefactors willing to fund his work. By the time Rosemary and Leary became an item, he was preaching the benefits of LSD at the Hitchcock Estate in Millbrook.
Rosemary and Leary consummated their relationship shortly after he helped her flee New York and an abusive boyfriend. The couple married in 1967 and was soon spreading the gospel of LSD to the blossoming counterculture in the United States. Their residence at Millbrook was terminated as a result of law enforcement raids, and Leary became a target for police scrutiny wherever he went. As his loyal spouse, Rosemary would share the target. By the early 1970s, they were at a crossroads as each was looking at lengthy jail sentences. Leary cut a deal, which served as the ultimate betrayal to both his wife and the counterculture movement.
THE ACID QUEEN is a revealing and fascinating biography of a woman who was often outshone by her infamous and influential spouse. Rosemary Woodruff was a smart, charming and spiritual person who believed in her husband and his initial mission in expanding the consciousness of the masses. The trials and tribulations she endured as the wife and partner of the notorious Dr. Timothy Leary ranged from jail time and a life on the run to a brief confinement in Algeria under the eye of the Black Panthers. Her story is about a search for identity and how it was discovered after years of adversity.
Susannah Cahalan (BRAIN ON FIRE) has written an extensive and worthwhile book about a misunderstood and often maligned figure. Her excellent research seeks to dispel misconceptions about Rosemary while illuminating Leary’s deceitful nature. This is a first-class biography.
Reviewed by Philip Zozzaro
October 7, 2025
I checked out this book through my library system. Having lived through the era, I’m not sure I would want to own it. I view this woman’s life as the downside of the 1960’s: a young woman, drifting, drawn into the hippie lifestyle by an aged, abusive drug addled, narcissistic self-serving peacock. Laughing. I know. Tell us how you really feel about him. Personally, I always saw Leary as ego driven and just another person wanting someone to wait on him hand and foot so he could fulfill his destiny, as he saw it. It’s a 1960’s version of “The Hand-Maid’s Tale.” Every young woman should read it now as a cautionary tale on how not to live your life. And yet, it seems, (based on MAGA think) that this is what contemporary men have grown nostalgic for--wishing life to return to this white male dominate world. As I always say, “The good ole days weren’t good for everyone.”
This book is well-researched and well written. Rosemary Leary had a pattern of choosing to be with men who treated her badly. Adrift, not really knowing what to do with herself. Leary, always looking out for himself, oft aided by his lost sheep followers, and when she is once more abandoned in his flight, she finds herself on the FBI’s “most wanted” list and goes into hiding and where she finally learns to have a life. Winding up in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a town at the tip of land well known for embracing life’s misfits, she learns to work hard, gain respect and have a role in life, but it’s a life lived as a lie and once again she is in flight. Her final years were probably the most satisfactory of her life. She moved West again and had a support system. Sadly, it wasn’t for long and she died too young at age 66.
I was just discussing the sixties last night, while watching a series that runs from 1963-1970. The costumes, music, political issues, war in Vietnam all came rushing back….and the drugs and the casualties--yet with a huge youth population demanding change. We took to the streets, as today's young must do now. Looking back, at the times, at Rosemary’s life, “yes,” there was change, but the slowness for change to benefit women and “the others." I now have to live in an era, watching those hard fought for gains being removed. I remember during the last election thinking, "I'm too old to waste my life watching this deranged fool play out his trauma." Another way of saying, "I'm too old for this shit." Sadly, I think Rosemary would agree.
This book is well-researched and well written. Rosemary Leary had a pattern of choosing to be with men who treated her badly. Adrift, not really knowing what to do with herself. Leary, always looking out for himself, oft aided by his lost sheep followers, and when she is once more abandoned in his flight, she finds herself on the FBI’s “most wanted” list and goes into hiding and where she finally learns to have a life. Winding up in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a town at the tip of land well known for embracing life’s misfits, she learns to work hard, gain respect and have a role in life, but it’s a life lived as a lie and once again she is in flight. Her final years were probably the most satisfactory of her life. She moved West again and had a support system. Sadly, it wasn’t for long and she died too young at age 66.
I was just discussing the sixties last night, while watching a series that runs from 1963-1970. The costumes, music, political issues, war in Vietnam all came rushing back….and the drugs and the casualties--yet with a huge youth population demanding change. We took to the streets, as today's young must do now. Looking back, at the times, at Rosemary’s life, “yes,” there was change, but the slowness for change to benefit women and “the others." I now have to live in an era, watching those hard fought for gains being removed. I remember during the last election thinking, "I'm too old to waste my life watching this deranged fool play out his trauma." Another way of saying, "I'm too old for this shit." Sadly, I think Rosemary would agree.
August 28, 2025
For me, this book started out on the mediocre side; I disliked some of the sensational writing ("Rosemary examined her face in miniature in the pools of Timothy's eyes") and some of the glamorization of drug use. And, considering that Rosemary did have an archive, I was hoping for more insight into her psyche, especially during her first two marriages - and early drug experimentation - before she met Tim Leary. But as it continued and especially in the closing chapters, Cahalan really came through in her writing. I appreciated that she provided specific details on both Tim and Rosemary's archives: the trustees of Tim's, the people who housed it before it was acquired by the New York Public Library, and how she came to working with Rosemary's papers. Plus the fact that Rosemary schlepped her papers around the world while she was underground. I also appreciate that Cahalan gave an update on the current revival of psychedelics as medical treatments for various problems, and how and why they might help people.
I have my own story about the Leary archive which makes certain aspects of this book poignant for me. Back in 2007 I was working for the rare book dealer who eventually brokered the sale of the Leary archive to the NYPL (in 2011). A colleague and I were sent out to Santa Cruz to assess the archive in its unprocessed state: aka, shifting through hundreds of boxes in a dusty storage unit. Denis Berry was our host - a woman who was one of the trustees of the archive who is mentioned at length toward the end of Cahalan's book - and she took us out to dinner and was generally lovely and fun to work with. I was pretty young - 26 - and knew I was stepping into a storied countercultural realm. I was intimidated! To this day that experience sticks out as being unique and special. And understanding Rosemary's story paints a fuller picture about what I already knew about Tim Leary (how Rosemary was involved in the Millbrook days, the escape from prison, living underground, his and her influence on culture, etc). I really respect Cahalan's research here.
I have my own story about the Leary archive which makes certain aspects of this book poignant for me. Back in 2007 I was working for the rare book dealer who eventually brokered the sale of the Leary archive to the NYPL (in 2011). A colleague and I were sent out to Santa Cruz to assess the archive in its unprocessed state: aka, shifting through hundreds of boxes in a dusty storage unit. Denis Berry was our host - a woman who was one of the trustees of the archive who is mentioned at length toward the end of Cahalan's book - and she took us out to dinner and was generally lovely and fun to work with. I was pretty young - 26 - and knew I was stepping into a storied countercultural realm. I was intimidated! To this day that experience sticks out as being unique and special. And understanding Rosemary's story paints a fuller picture about what I already knew about Tim Leary (how Rosemary was involved in the Millbrook days, the escape from prison, living underground, his and her influence on culture, etc). I really respect Cahalan's research here.
May 1, 2025
Extremely eventful life of a beautiful (author mentions this many times) young woman whose third husband was Timothy Leary, with whom she reunited after decades apart [and having forgiven him for ratting her out after she helped him escape from prison] and a long period of living as a fugitive from the law.
Author mostly stays in the background aside from a somewhat odd IMO final section in which she warns readers to be careful about psychedelics in spite of their revived rep as a form of mental health care. If I were the editor I'd have assured her that anyone paying attention to the prior 300+ pages would have already picked up on some of the downsides of dropping acid a lot.
They knew or intersected with basically all famous 60's people, so there is a lot of what might be considered name-dropping. Having been born in 1961, I was a little young for immersion in that scene but did appreciate learning about a couple of hauntingly coincidental intersections with Rosemary Woodruff Leary's life:
1. She was friends with the musician David Amram, causing me flashbacks to countless drives to/from grocery store in the early '90's with toddlers who liked to listen to our Raffi cassette on repeat. Now-old parents, sing it with me....
"A peanut butter sandwich made with jam.
One for me, and one for David Amram...."
Earworm evoked, I trust. You're welcome.
2. During one of her undercover stints, she worked at the Provincetown Inn and lived with a guy in Truro, which contained as the author notes one "package store". A couple times in the early 80's I ran in the Cape Cod Relay (Plymouth Rock to Provincetown), and my leg was from.....the package store in Truro to the finish at Provincetown Inn. Shoutout to any members of our team (the Thunder Chicken Track Club) who happen to see this review.
Author mostly stays in the background aside from a somewhat odd IMO final section in which she warns readers to be careful about psychedelics in spite of their revived rep as a form of mental health care. If I were the editor I'd have assured her that anyone paying attention to the prior 300+ pages would have already picked up on some of the downsides of dropping acid a lot.
They knew or intersected with basically all famous 60's people, so there is a lot of what might be considered name-dropping. Having been born in 1961, I was a little young for immersion in that scene but did appreciate learning about a couple of hauntingly coincidental intersections with Rosemary Woodruff Leary's life:
1. She was friends with the musician David Amram, causing me flashbacks to countless drives to/from grocery store in the early '90's with toddlers who liked to listen to our Raffi cassette on repeat. Now-old parents, sing it with me....
"A peanut butter sandwich made with jam.
One for me, and one for David Amram...."
Earworm evoked, I trust. You're welcome.
2. During one of her undercover stints, she worked at the Provincetown Inn and lived with a guy in Truro, which contained as the author notes one "package store". A couple times in the early 80's I ran in the Cape Cod Relay (Plymouth Rock to Provincetown), and my leg was from.....the package store in Truro to the finish at Provincetown Inn. Shoutout to any members of our team (the Thunder Chicken Track Club) who happen to see this review.
May 6, 2025
I got this book because the author is coming to speak at the Millbrook Public Library, and several bits of the book take place in Millbrook, as the Hitchcock Estate is just outside the village center. I have long known vague details of the history of the Leary encampment at that home (I've always been enthralled by the stone gateway that sits right on Route 44), but never knew specifics, so this book was very interesting to me! I enjoyed the way the story was laid out, broken up by Rosemary's various identities as she navigated an incredibly fascinating life. I felt like for all of the time she spent "standing still", there was so much packed into her 66 years!! I can't even imagine (although Cahalan does an excellent job putting you there) what it must have been like to be in Leary's orbit - but always to be playing second fiddle. When clearly Rosemary was a force on her own, and wholly deserved her own NYPL archival collection, which she earned in 2016 [https://archives.nypl.org/mss/23932].
I will remember this book for years to come -- so many pieces stand out to me, and I learned a ton about the hippie era. And I appreciated the author's note at the end that indicated the reasons she wrote this book, when Rosemary had already (posthumously) published her journals. But it does make sense to write the story of the Acid Queen from the outside looking in; one can more fully understand the overarching story and the events that shaped Rosemary's life and the decisions she made. I am so glad this book was pressed into my hands! I am quite looking forward to the author talk.
Side note: Weird, that my kids will be going to the same high school as Timothy Leary's son....
I will remember this book for years to come -- so many pieces stand out to me, and I learned a ton about the hippie era. And I appreciated the author's note at the end that indicated the reasons she wrote this book, when Rosemary had already (posthumously) published her journals. But it does make sense to write the story of the Acid Queen from the outside looking in; one can more fully understand the overarching story and the events that shaped Rosemary's life and the decisions she made. I am so glad this book was pressed into my hands! I am quite looking forward to the author talk.
Side note: Weird, that my kids will be going to the same high school as Timothy Leary's son....
July 16, 2025
I've read some stuff on Tim Leary before and I was trying to remember where...maybe Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind ? Timmy is a wacko, but I didn't know anything about his wife, or rather, the most famous of his wives. Oh wait, he also dated Uma Thurman's mom, so maybe Rosemary would be the most famous of his wives vis à vis her link to him? The most psychedelic wife?
Right, right, she's The Acid Queen. And what does the Acid Queen do? Acid, as you would expect. Weed, yeah. Meditation and yoga. Farming, cooking, domestic commune stuff. She also seems to enjoy long baths. She travels, extensively, some of it by her choice and some of it not, tabs sewn into the hems of her dresses. She Stands By Her Man, that's for sure, until she doesn't and that's cool because again, Timmy is a wacko. Still, despite him being a wacko, she does THE MOST to further his message and keep the party going even while he's in jail. And by party, I mean fundraising, which can sometimes be a party but is mostly about getting people to give you money. From this list, you can see she lives quite the life, rather many lives, given the twists and turns of fate.
She probably would've done better as the face and voice of the 60s countercultural movement, but here we are in this timeline. With Timmy.
Luckily for the author of this book, the NYPL has an extensive collection of Rosemary and Timmy's correspondence and other ephemera. The Acid Queen is richly sourced and uses a lot of Rosemary's own words to recount events or feelings around events. It was great to read this and shed light on this lesser known figure of countercultural history!
Right, right, she's The Acid Queen. And what does the Acid Queen do? Acid, as you would expect. Weed, yeah. Meditation and yoga. Farming, cooking, domestic commune stuff. She also seems to enjoy long baths. She travels, extensively, some of it by her choice and some of it not, tabs sewn into the hems of her dresses. She Stands By Her Man, that's for sure, until she doesn't and that's cool because again, Timmy is a wacko. Still, despite him being a wacko, she does THE MOST to further his message and keep the party going even while he's in jail. And by party, I mean fundraising, which can sometimes be a party but is mostly about getting people to give you money. From this list, you can see she lives quite the life, rather many lives, given the twists and turns of fate.
She probably would've done better as the face and voice of the 60s countercultural movement, but here we are in this timeline. With Timmy.
Luckily for the author of this book, the NYPL has an extensive collection of Rosemary and Timmy's correspondence and other ephemera. The Acid Queen is richly sourced and uses a lot of Rosemary's own words to recount events or feelings around events. It was great to read this and shed light on this lesser known figure of countercultural history!
December 24, 2025
I loved Cahalan's The Great Pretender: The Undercover Mission That Changed Our Understanding of Madness, so I could not wait to pick up her newest book.
While Cahalan remains a strong writer, her choice of subject tanks the book. Rosemary Woodruff Leary was used and abused by the men in her life, and let them overshadow her own contributions, but she is not a very sympathetic person. She raised up, supported, and helped her husband Timothy Leary escape jail - a man who was a malignant narcissist, racist, and general bad idea. She supported a commune where adults neglected and abused children. She was a bystander in Timothy's terrible treatment of his own children. As Cahalan points out, Rosemary was not an idiot. She was a very intelligent woman. She may have had love goggles on, but she did not walk through her life blindly. She supported Leary's ideas; she supported his commune; she put him over herself over and over; she chose to ignore the neglect and abuse of the children around her. She valued her own esoteric ideas and drugs over other values. Timothy Leary is the bigger villain in this story, but the woman standing at his back supporting him and championing him - even if she was used by him - is not someone I find terribly interesting or think deserves a biography.
While Cahalan remains a strong writer, her choice of subject tanks the book. Rosemary Woodruff Leary was used and abused by the men in her life, and let them overshadow her own contributions, but she is not a very sympathetic person. She raised up, supported, and helped her husband Timothy Leary escape jail - a man who was a malignant narcissist, racist, and general bad idea. She supported a commune where adults neglected and abused children. She was a bystander in Timothy's terrible treatment of his own children. As Cahalan points out, Rosemary was not an idiot. She was a very intelligent woman. She may have had love goggles on, but she did not walk through her life blindly. She supported Leary's ideas; she supported his commune; she put him over herself over and over; she chose to ignore the neglect and abuse of the children around her. She valued her own esoteric ideas and drugs over other values. Timothy Leary is the bigger villain in this story, but the woman standing at his back supporting him and championing him - even if she was used by him - is not someone I find terribly interesting or think deserves a biography.
June 28, 2025
I met Tim Leary once at a Hollywood party. It was in the late 1980s or early 1990s. He was quiet, pleasant enough but didn't have a lot to say. There was none of the famous twinkle in his eye. I didn't feel the charisma. Perhaps my judgment was unfair, as anybody can have an off day, and I was certainly no more charming than he was, but it reinforced my impression of him as a vacuous charlatan. Sure, some people who took LSD saw God, or otherwise felt that their lives had changed, but I could never see how it made any sense to evangelize it or to build your life around it. Ram Dass was my man, but not Leary.
As I learned from this book, Rosemary was his pillar of strength. She bought into his persona and his message and helped him to carry it to the world. Without her, Leary would not have been Leary. And for much of their relationship he adored her and appreciated her, until he didn't any more, and then he cheated on her and betrayed her. But he still needed her.
Rosemary was a person in her own right. Though a high school dropout, she was smart and well read. She was a good mate for a former Harvard professor. But she was cast in the 60s Earth Mother role, always in a secondary position where she couldn't steal any of Leary's glory. She was there to serve, which is unfortunate, because in another world, she could have taken the lead with Leary in second position. It might have produced a more enduring movement.
As I learned from this book, Rosemary was his pillar of strength. She bought into his persona and his message and helped him to carry it to the world. Without her, Leary would not have been Leary. And for much of their relationship he adored her and appreciated her, until he didn't any more, and then he cheated on her and betrayed her. But he still needed her.
Rosemary was a person in her own right. Though a high school dropout, she was smart and well read. She was a good mate for a former Harvard professor. But she was cast in the 60s Earth Mother role, always in a secondary position where she couldn't steal any of Leary's glory. She was there to serve, which is unfortunate, because in another world, she could have taken the lead with Leary in second position. It might have produced a more enduring movement.
August 23, 2025
Well, this certainly cemented my pre-existent sense that Timothy Leary was a total charlatan - and a real scumbag to boot. After his wife takes the fall for him and goes to prison in his place, he never once visits her and becomes angry with her when she takes the chance to come see him while still on parole. He also claims repeatedly that women can have 100 orgasms during sex while under the influence of lsd, a claim at which Rosemary - the acid queen - scoffs. Sex with Timothy was, in fact, 'perfunctory and unsatisfying'. Leary also gives his nine-year-old children LSD, supplying it to them without their knowledge when they reject it. The book also draws attention to the 'double standards' practiced amongst the community at Milbrook - Rosemary and Timothy's rambling New York estate, where many of the psychedelic experiments took place. As one community member puts it later, as a woman, you could sleep with whoever you wanted but were still expected to make dinner. From what I've read elsewhere, this seems to have been typical of the 'emancipation' of the era. What I found most hilarious, though, was Rosemary's final assessment of all of her years as a paid-up psychonaut. Reflecting at the end of her life, she admits that she's had hundreds of trips and hasn't learned anything.
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June 14, 2025I'm generally interested in the history of the counterculture in the 60s and 70s so I had been wanting to read this since it came out. The primary subject of the book is Rosemary Leary, Timothy Leary's wife, but my main takeaway was less about her and more about how absolutely awful Timothy Leary was. As in, I lost count of how many times he betrayed Rosemary, other family members, friends and associates to save his own behind or get some sort of advantage for himself. Dante would have put him in the 9th circle of hell with the traitors for sure. Just a gross person.
Honestly, terminal self-obsession with most of these folks all the way down. They left a lot of human wreckage behind them, and what happened to Timothy Leary's kids was unconscionable. And why did everyone in Rosemary's circle congratulate her on reuniting with Timothy? You just want to reach through the pages and shake her. Girl, no...just stay away.
I'm not sure how I felt about this one mainly because most of the people involved were not likable at all. But it did prompt interesting thoughts about fidelity, legacy, and what makes a good life.
Honestly, terminal self-obsession with most of these folks all the way down. They left a lot of human wreckage behind them, and what happened to Timothy Leary's kids was unconscionable. And why did everyone in Rosemary's circle congratulate her on reuniting with Timothy? You just want to reach through the pages and shake her. Girl, no...just stay away.
I'm not sure how I felt about this one mainly because most of the people involved were not likable at all. But it did prompt interesting thoughts about fidelity, legacy, and what makes a good life.
November 11, 2025
Enlightening account of Rosemary's life and the counterculture of the 60s, not bogged down with superfluous details as some writers struggle to do with a real life subject. Cahalan keeps her eye focused on Rosemary's world, even as it intersects the towering shadow of Timothy Leary. This book helps bring her into the light and expose Leary's darkness: his obsession with fame, and most egregiously, the treatment of his children. I lost all respect for Leary (not that there was much to begin with) after reading about the underworld of psychedelic zealots who cared only about turning on and promoted LSD as a panacea for every problem in the world. Cahalan balances these insights with questions about how they can be used responsibly, as in helping victims of PTSD. But for Timothy, his acolytes and even Rosemary for a time, LSD was a god. It was literally their religion and they cared only about getting high, causing them to neglect and even abuse their own children by giving them drugs at a young age. I shudder to think what else remains to be said from the viewpoint of Jack and Susan Leary. But that's for another book.
May 25, 2025
While most people of a certain age have heard of Timothy Leary, fewer people know or remember Rosemary Woodruff Leary, one of his wives and muses. This biography tells her story from her childhood until death, but focusing mostly on her relationship with Leary and how its trajectory informed her later life. More importantly, it tells the important story of how crucial she actually was to his fame and life. Meticulously researched and written, this is a seminal book on the history of the era, although I found it difficult to not view it from a twenty-first century perspective (all that smoking is going to kill you!). But I cannot underscore the importance of telling the story of Rosemary Woodruff, with the underlying reminder that most great/famous/important men in history have had an unseen or underappreciated woman in the background enabling them. And Rosemary Woodruff certainly falls into that category. She was known for her beauty, less so for her important contributions to Leary's work. #TheAcidQueen #NetGalley
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