'An electrifying portrait . . . These star-studded pages give us the life of the true "acid queen" and the iconic presence of her era' JENNIFER CLEMENT, author of Widow Basquiat
Rosemary Woodruff Leary, or the 'Acid Queen' as she was named by Allen Ginsberg, tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time. Yet she has been remembered only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and life on the run inflamed the U.S. government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory.
Drawing from a wealth of interviews, diaries, archives and unpublished sources, Susannah Cahalan reclaims Rosemary's narrative from those who dismissed her. Page-turning, revelatory and utterly compelling, The Acid Queen shines an overdue spotlight on a pioneering psychedelic seeker - a woman 'with her feet on the ground and her head in the sky' - and rewrites the era from the perspective of an extraordinary woman.
| ISBN: | 9781838857448 |
| Publication date: | 4th June 2026 |
| Author: | Susannah Cahalan |
| Publisher: | Canongate an imprint of Canongate Books |
| Format: | Paperback |
| Pagination: | 384 pages |
| Genres: |
Biography: general Feminism and feminist theory Drugs and alcohol: social aspects Biography: science, technology and medicine |
'An electrifying portrait . . . These star-studded pages give us the life of the true "acid queen" and the iconic presence of her era' JENNIFER CLEMENT, author of Widow Basquiat
Rosemary Woodruff Leary, or the 'Acid Queen' as she was named by Allen Ginsberg, tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time. Yet she has been remembered only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and life on the run inflamed the U.S. government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory.
Drawing from a wealth of interviews, diaries, archives and unpublished sources, Susannah Cahalan reclaims Rosemary's narrative from those who dismissed her. Page-turning, revelatory and utterly compelling, The Acid Queen shines an overdue spotlight on a pioneering psychedelic seeker - a woman 'with her feet on the ground and her head in the sky' - and rewrites the era from the perspective of an extraordinary woman.
The Acid Queen features in the following genres: Biography: general, Feminism and feminist theory, Drugs and alcohol: social aspects, Biography: science, technology and medicine
The Acid Queen is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Acid Queen was written by Susannah Cahalan and published by Canongate an imprint of Canongate Books
The Acid Queen has 384 pages
£10.79