Product Description

B. H. Friedman, who wrote the first biography of Jackson Pollock, returns in "Tripping" to the time, shortly after Pollock died, when the author and wife participated in the early drug experiements conducted by Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist. Much of this memoir is based on reports Friedman wrote to Dr. Leary and on correspondence with him and others. The author creates a candid and fascinating portrait of the firsthand effect of "tripping," and the ultimate price some paid when dreams of innocence and liberation turned into nightmares. A true flashback to a turbulent time of excess and exhilaration, "Tripping" is the dramatic account of one man's journey through personal and professional upheaval and toward enlightenment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1182141 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 169 pages

Review
"A 'must read' for anyone with an interest in Timothy Leary's life and thought. Strongly recommended." -- Midwest Book Review, June 2006

"The most accurate evocations of the psychedelic experience I've ever read." -- The New York Observer, June 19, 2006

From the Publisher
In this memoir Tripping, B. H. Friedman, author of numerous novels, stories, plays, and monographs, takes us behind the scenes for an intimate look at Leary's inner circle, a group of teachers, students, and artists who participated in drug research and experimentation throughout much of the decade. Based on his detailed journals as well as correspondence with Leary and others, the author paints a fascinating and candid portrait of the firsthand effects of "tripping," and the ultimate price that some paid when dreams of innocence and liberation turned into nightmares. A true flashback to a turbulent time of excess and ehhilaration, Tripping is the dramatic account of one man's journey through personal and professional upheaval and toward enlightenment.

About the Author
Since the fifties, B. H. Friedman has spent almost equal time in New York, Provincetown, and East Hampton. During this half-century he has published six novels, three volumes of stories, the first biographies of Jackson Pollock and Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, as well as numberous art monographs. He has also written seven plays, all but two presented off-Broadway or in the Hamptons. His novel "Whispers" was recommended by William Gass for a National Book Award. Another, "The Polygamist," was a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year." His stories received the Nelson Algren Award and one from the Coordinating Council of Literary Magazines. "Tripping" is as tightly constructed, carefully layered, and narratively compelling as Friedman's highly regarded fiction.

Customer Reviews

Tripping to Success
B.H. Friedman applies a master's literary touch to the multifaceted mystery of personal and social transformation aided by the psychedelic mushroom, showing yet again, it is the artists who lead the way. Here is an honest and intimate memoir of a fateful meeting between that irascible and unrepentant, brilliant and erratic, patriotic revolutionary trickster, Timothy Leary, with a cross section of the New York "high" society. Take that any way you like. Friedman, through Leary's provocation, turned on, tuned into his true self, dropped out of the booming New York real estate market, and became a full time writer, a decision that cost him an estimated 10-20 million dollars, give or take a few--and he is ever grateful. Leary comes across as Leary was: a paradox, mercurial, manipulative, ego centric, inconsistent, sane and insane, a mass of contradictions, like life itself. Friedman's thoughtful, experienced, and rich, textured prose is just right for the difficult task of portraying Leary and the (r)evolution he was an advocate for, without stifling it because of a few blunders. This is a wonderful and soulful memoir that I hope inspires more.

A remarkably account of the life and times of Dr. Timothy Leary
Tripping: A Memoir by B. H. Friedman is a remarkably account of the life and times of Dr. Timothy Leary, including his accomplishments and influence with an active coterie of students, teachers, and artists during the freewheeling decade of the 1960's. Vividly offering an exclusive perspective of the world in sixties, Tripping details Leary's progressive discoveries and passion for LSD, cannabis, mushrooms, and other psychologically altering substances as part of his controversial views with respect to the liberation of life, love, beauty, society, and the "journey of peace". A "must read" for anyone with an interest in Timothy Leary's life and thought, Tripping is very strongly recommended as a one-of-a-kind memoir which documents of his life story.