Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady: Women's Writings on the Drug Experience

by Cynthia Palmer (Editor), Michael Horowitz (Editor)

George Sand * Susan Sontag * Edith Piaf * Louisa May Alcott * Edith Wharton * Billie Holiday * Maria Sabina * Anita Hoffman * Charlotte Bronte * Diane di Prima * Sarah Bernhardt * Elizabeth Barrett Browning * Margaret Fuller * Anais Nin * Laura Huxley

These women are part of a virtually unknown tradition in women's history and a rich genre of drug and altered-states literature.

This book is the first collection of women's writings on their experiences with mind-altering drugs, form the Victorian to the present post-psychedelic eras. The 'shamans' among the dozens of contributors communicate drugs' revelations, visions, and healing powers, like a primitive tribe's sorcerer. The 'mainline ladies' are the pleasure and oblivion seekers, the addicts and abusers.

'Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady' shows that, for a long time, women have experimented with drugs courageously, lived dangerously, and written about it eloquently.

Genres: Nonfiction, Drugs, Womens, Feminism, Gender, Psychology, American

285 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1982

Reviews

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Apologies for the flurry of drug-lit reviews lately; I swear, it’s almost over and I’ll go back to normal books soon]

So after reading this, I was googling the editors real quick, just to see what their background is. Imagine my surprise when I discover that they’re… Winona Ryder’s parents? And Timothy Leary, god to any psychonaut is… Ryder’s godfather? And they were all friends with Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg, and Philip K Dick?

Girl hit the familial goldmine, is what I’m saying.

In the foreword, the commentor hits the nail on the head: “A specifically female approach to mind-altering substances emerges, a phenomenon that has been widely disregarded.” Yes. Yes it has. Women do drugs differently than men do drugs. There are different things we can access. Great deal of overlap, of course, and I’m not suggesting any innate differences in how we use drugs, but we’re socialized differently, so of course our perspectives on something as personal and identity-rich as drug use is going to be different. Particularly in regards to gender-based religious roles.

And this compilation. Is. Flawless. Did I wish this into being? This is everything, everything.

Here are the women you’ve heard about, the writers, the poets, the nobles, the activists, and here they are playing with their brains in ways you never knew they had, in ways you’d be startled to discover.

Here, too, and perhaps even more interesting, are the women you never hear about but always wished you had. The kind of women who didn’t do anything of particular note with their lives except to live it, and to live it in unexpected ways. The kind of women who moved to China in the 1930s alone to teach English on a whim, who dreamed of being an opium addict as a little girl (along with being a lion tamer and a ghost expert, and other strange desires of childhood). And who goes over to an apartment to vibe with her new Chinese friends (a man! She’s chilling in an apartment with some random high Chinese men- in the 1930s! So much for the image of the demure pre-WW2 American woman). She notices they’re smoking opium and says she’s never seen it done before and adds, I shit you not, “But I’m sointerested” and when he offers, answers “Oh, yes” (childhood dream about to come true!). I’ve never read a more modern-sounding account than hers. This sounds like something any college kid would experience today (perhaps with weed, not opium, but still).

Admittedly, there are a few fruitcakes (Adele Getty has hundo p gone ‘round the twist entirely) but even a fruitcake now and then is worth eating.

This, by the way, is not an academic text. It’s sort of spacey and talks about drugs a liiiiiittle too fondly to be taken seriously as a history of female drug use or anything like that. You can tell, the editors try hard to be detached and scholarly, but they just can’t contain their reverence for a nice, meaningful drug experience.

But it’s an anthology, you don’t read it for the introduction. And Mama Coca bless this odd little couple for pouring through hundreds of unpublished writings to bring us this. Well-chosen and from startling sources, I can’t ask for a better curation of material.

[Meen]

Oh my gawd, I keep finding all these amazing books on here! I wonder if someone would pay me just to sit around and read books for the rest of my life...

[Masresha Girmachew · Rating 5 out of 5]

absolutely brilliant book, only one of it's kind. i mean that, this is not a topic well-researched and pieced together in a format that is non-subjective. really a good resource to have around if you are at all somewhere on the user spectrum, even as a voyeur or someone who wishes to learn. there is no greater teacher than DIRECT EXPERIENCE which is why this book is a GOOD RESOURCE. women are highly scrutinzed and objectified for engaging in many of the same behaviors as their male counterparts and IMHO it is one of the sadder things that the medicine woman or wise-to-the-uptake drug user who happens to female, is slandered as a wel-fare sucking lowlife who does not contribute to the collective intelligence, creative life of the world.

[Marc]

This is a great book. Well-researched by the folks who are affiliated with one of the largest collections in the world of writings about psychedelia... Many of these ladies are well-known, and some not - but they were all pioneers in an area that is vastly under-reported. Highly recommended for scholars and historians alike...

[Fishface · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fairly interesting. It's a collection of media and cultural images of women using and distributing various kinds of dope, some from the point of view of the users and distributors and some seen from afar. Due to the year this came out there is a heavy emphasis on psychedelics, although they also discuss heroin, cocaine, and the other American favorites. Heavily illustrated and very pretty to look at.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great smorgasbord of fiction and memoir by women writers both well-known and obscure on the drug experience; my to-read pile is surely to grow with the full works of many writers sampled within. My only complaint is how I wish there were a volume 2 featuring writers from 1980 to the present day.

[Caroline Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a pretty sick book (in a good way!) there was a lot of imagery and the writings were fantastic, particularly the victorian era pieces and the works from the sixties and seventies. definitely worth getting from the library

[Jessi MotherFucking Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is a great book to open up and read random excerpts of debaucherous women's drugs experiences...lovein' it.

[Nina H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book with a great collection of imagery and storytelling about these fascinating women from various points in time.

[else fine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should not be as boring as it is.

[Helisa Taban · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a treasure.
I borrowed a copy from the library because it costs too much to purchase.
A compilation of historical psychedelic experiences of women is so radical that it blows my mind to realize how effectively female enlightenment and empowerment were kept taboo and suppressed for so long!
The feminine heritage of self-discovery and soul searching reduced to witchcraft and infidelity only to prevent access to such vast humanity and free spirited non-conformity.
These women tapped into higher being, and by that, they guide the rest of us.

[Άννα Τσιαπούρη · Rating 5 out of 5]

Πρόκειται για ένα σπάνιο βιβλίο της Fitz Ludlow Memorial Library του Σαν Φρανσίσκο, της μοναδικής βιβλιοθήκης του κόσμου που ήταν αφιερωμένη αποκλειστικά στη λογοτεχνία των ψυχοτρόπων ουσιών.

Οι συγγραφείς, γονείς της αγαπημένης μας διακεκριμένης ηθοποιού Winona Ryder @winonaryderofficial, ήταν διευθυντές της βιβλιοθήκης αυτής από την ίδρυσή της το 1970 έως το 1982.

Full review at Insta @vivliofreneia

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