Susannah Cahalan's ‘The Acid Queen' reclaims the legacy of a psychedelic pioneer
Author Susannah Cahalan is admittedly obsessed with the human mind.
That intense interest developed after battling a life-threatening case of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis at the age of 24. Documented in Cahalan's bestselling 2012 memoir, 'Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness,' her harrowing experience was adapted into a film for Netflix in 2016. It also left the writer insatiably intrigued with altered states of consciousness and their profound, at times life-altering, effects.
More Information
The Acid Queen The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary
By Susannah Cahalan
(Viking; 384 pages; $32)
Susannah Cahalan in conversation with Meg Josephson: 6 p.m. Wednesday, April 30. Free. 51 Book Passage, Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera. 415-927-0960. www.bookpassage.com
Cahalan's latest book returns to this theme by offering the first comprehensive biography of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, a pioneering psychonaut who helped to reshape the minds of an entire generation.
In 'The Acid Queen: The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary,' Cahalan offers a full portrait of the third wife of the pro-LSD psychologist Timothy Leary by providing rich details of her life beyond the exploits of her infamous spouse.
Cahalan traces her subject's story from her birth in St. Louis, Mo. as Rosemary Sarah Woodruff, to her first taste of the counterculture as wife of jazz accordionist Mat Matthews. Already twice divorced yet barely old enough to legally drink, her introduction to Leary in 1965 in Millbrook, N.Y., united two figures who together would help usher LSD into the American lexicon.
Among her many interviewees, Leary's son, Jack, from a previous marriage, told Cahalan that he 'thought more of (Rosemary) as my mother than Timothy as my father,' according to the book. He went on to praise Woodruff Leary as 'about the sanest and kindest of the hundreds of people' who came through his father's estate-turned-commune in Millbrook, where the couple spent their heyday ingesting copious amounts of LSD.
Following Leary's arrest for marijuana possession at the U.S.-Mexico border, Woodruff Leary spent 30 days in jail for refusing to testify on her husband's behalf before subsequently disguising herself to play a key role in his daring jail break in 1970. Woodruff Leary remained on the lam, living under assumed identities for large swathes of the next two decades before finally coming back above ground in her final years.
Though both figures would take other lovers, the pair's devotion to one another, if imperfect, always remained at least partially intact for the duration of their lives (Leary died at 75 in Beverly Hills in 1997; Woodruff Leary died at 66 in Aptos in 2002).
'The Acid Queen' includes many never-before-published details of Woodruff Leary's life on Cape Cod under the assumed name Sarah Woodruff, and marks yet another compelling entry in the growing body of work reclaiming the stories of women unfairly relegated to the footnotes of history.
Arriving just weeks after the release of David Sheff's new biography of Yoko Ono, Cahalan acknowledged that the moment feels right to be publishing books detailing the full, singular lives of women like Ono and Woodruff Leary, who both notably appear in the1969 'Give Peace a Chance' video filmed during John Lennon and Ono's anti-war 'bed-in' protest.
'The boomer narrative of peace and love doesn't focus a lot on women,' Cahalan told the Chronicle. 'When I went to look at serious work done on the women of that era, if you're not talking about Janice Joplin or Stevie Nicks — just like the everyday hippie woman, for lack of a better word — there's very little scholarship on them. They were not taken seriously at all, and I feel they haven't been afforded the place in the culture that they deserve.'
Cahalan described a moment of serendipity that led her to Rosemary Woodruff Leary's story. After visiting the Timothy Leary archives at the New York Public Library in search of inspiration for her third book, the author recalls browsing a Brooklyn boutique when she spotted a long maxi dress covered in black poppies.
She didn't buy the piece from Swedish designer Carin Rodebjer's 2020 resort collection, but upon further research Cahalan learned its aesthetic was inspired by the 'free intellect and relaxed style' of Rosemary Woodruff Leary.
'It was like something was conspiring in this very self-referential way to compel me to explore this deeper,' she shared.
Ahead of an appearance at Book Passage's Corte Madera store on Wednesday, April 30, Cahalan spoke with the Chronicle by Zoom from her New York City apartment about her research process and the critical role the Bay Area played in Woodruff Leary's life.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Was there a specific moment in your research where you realized Rosemary Woodruff Leary's life was a book-worthy story?
A: The first thing was realizing how big her life was before Leary. She was a stewardess. She hung out with the Kerouacs of the world and the jazz musicians of New York City. She was a beatnik chick, divorced twice before she had even met (Timothy Leary). Leary wasn't even the most fascinating thing about her.
The thing that sold it for me was the undercover life she lived later on. It wasn't even helping Leary with his jailbreak; it was this life she spent living as Sarah Woodruff under an assumed name in Cape Cod. That was never written about beyond a brief mention. That was my signal that this was a book.
Q: Is it fair to assume you tracked down a few colorful characters who knew Timothy and Rosemary to help you flesh out the story?
A: Yes, I talked to people from various stages of her life. (One of the) most important people was her brother, Gary Woodruff. He gave me access to archives that aren't in the New York Public Library. His sister was very much a mystery to him, and I think reading the book was somewhat revelatory for him as well.
Her lover, John Schewel, is who she was underground with during her time in South America and Europe and that was never known before. John had never spoken about it before, so that was amazing.
I found people from the pre-Leary New York days, like David Amram. I think he's 99 now and he's an amazing jazz musician who knew her.
And then there were the Cape Cod people. To some people, she was Sarah the whole time, so they had a fun time hearing about her life before that time.
Q: It seems like the Bay Area, and Northern California at large, played a pretty key role in Rosemary's life.
A: Golden Gate Park is where Timothy Leary told the world to ' turn on, tune in, drop out.' It has a critical place in the saga of Rosemary and obviously in Timothy's saga as well.
Interestingly, she was not present when he said that, because she was tired of all the fame. Once they got to California, that's when Timothy hit a new notoriety and apex in his fame.
They were also with the Grateful Dead at various points, and they rubbed shoulders with all these interesting Hollywood types too.
For Rosemary, when they went to California, it was at the height of her powers as a mediagenic person. It was where she became the 'Acid Queen,' as Allen Ginsberg called her. She was deeply intertwined with the counterculture press and got quoted constantly.
When Leary was put in jail, she was the one facing the cameras and advocating on behalf of freedom of use for psychedelic drugs. She was advocating for his release. She was raising money for his trial, then his appeal. She really came into her own in the Bay Area.
Q: You point out early in the book that one may never have noticed Rosemary's presence in the front left of the famous 'Give Peace a Chance' bed-in photo of John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Timothy Leary.
Exactly. And if you extrapolate from there, this whole story is a question of where the camera should be, right? It was on Leary, and she was in the shots, and she augmented them because she was so beautiful. But it was so satisfying to shift the camera and focus it on her. It really changed the way I viewed everything about the whole story, and it also gave me an opportunity to focus on someone who's not typically the subject of a book or a biography.
At the end of the book, I talk about how Rosemary was a mythmaker, and how she spent her life creating her own myth and this idea that we only can get so close to the truth. It's something that I see as a through line in all my books.
I think a lot of us are seekers and looking for meaning, especially these days, and Rosemary was someone who saw that as a worthwhile pursuit, as something that can and should be taken seriously. She saw it as something valuable and it was so fun for me to explore that idea through her. It's something that I believe we all think about and I'm not sure if she ever found it.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Newsweek
2 hours ago
- Newsweek
Prince Harry and Meghan's Biggest U.S. Scandals
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Meghan Markle and Prince Harry were frequent targets of the British press as working royals, but it was only after several years in the United States that they began to face controversy across the pond as well. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have experienced successes since moving to California, but have also faced their fair share of crises. Meghan's mock curtsy, Harry's frostbite, and allegations of staff mistreatment have been just some of the moments fans of the couple might prefer to forget. Meghan's Curtsy to Queen Elizabeth II The duchess used the couple's December 2022 Netflix show, Harry & Meghan, to describe her first-ever curtsy to Queen Elizabeth, but it provoked a backlash for allegedly disrespecting British culture. Meghan re-created the curtsy she said she performed, bowing at the waist and spreading her arms wide in either direction. "I mean, Americans would understand this," she said. "We have Medieval Times Dinner & was like that." She had previously described the meeting to Oprah Winfrey in 2021 without mentioning any issues with her curtsy, and Harry went on to say it was "flawless" in his memoir, Spare. Many came away feeling the mock curtsy had disrespected a long-standing British tradition, and the fact that the queen had died three months earlier no doubt did not help. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Invictus Games in Vancouver, Canada, on February 9, 2025. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle attend the Invictus Games in Vancouver, Canada, on February 9, 2025. Samir Hussein/WireImage Prince Harry Mocked Over Frostbite Harry's book, Spare, was released a month later and led to ridicule after he described in detail applying his mother's favorite Elizabeth Arden lip cream to his frost-bitten private parts. "My penis was oscillating between extremely sensitive and borderline traumatized," he wrote. "The last place I wanted to be was Frostnipistan. "I'd been trying some home remedies, including one recommended by a friend. She'd urged me to apply Elizabeth Arden cream. My mum used that on her lips. 'You want me to put that on my todger?' "'It works, Harry. Trust me.' I found a tube, and the minute I opened it, the smell transported me through time. I felt as if my mother was right there in the room. "Then I took a smidge and applied there. 'Weird' doesn't really do the feeling justice." Suffice it to say, the passage attracted the attention of quite a few late-night U.S. comedy shows. 'F****** Grifters' and the Collapse of Spotify Just months later, the Sussexes' Spotify deal collapsed, and just as their team was reassuring journalists the two had parted ways by mutual consent, up popped an executive at the streaming giant to derail the PR strategy. Bill Simmons used his own podcast to fire a parting shot at the couple: "I wish I had been involved in the Meghan and Harry leave Spotify negotiation. 'The F****** Grifters,' that's the podcast we should have launched with them. "I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry, trying to help him with a podcast idea. It's one of my best stories." Meghan a 'Dictator in High Heels' Meghan had long been fending off allegations that she bullied staff at Kensington Palace as a working royal. The scandal migrated to America in September 2024 with an article from The Hollywood Reporter headlined: "Why Hollywood Keeps Quitting on Harry and Meghan." The article quoted a source who said the couple's U.S. staff were terrified of Meghan and that the royal belittled people. Another source said Meghan marched around "like a dictator in high heels," and has reduced grown men to tears. Meghan's team launched a PR counterattack in the pages of Us Weekly, where several past and present staffers praised her. She has consistently denied the allegations of bullying. Prince Harry's ESPY Award In 2024, Prince Harry was awarded the ESPY's Pat Tillman Award for Service, sparking a major backlash from sports fans. At its peak, Mary Tillman, Pat's mother, told The Mail on Sunday: "I am shocked as to why they would select such a controversial and divisive individual to receive the award. There are recipients that are far more fitting." 'South Park' and the 'Worldwide Privacy Tour' Harry's memoir sparked a collapse in the couple's U.S. approval rating, and in the same way that a picture can tell a thousand words, an episode of South Park ridiculing the duke and duchess appeared to tell the story of a shift in American perceptions. The episode, titled "The Worldwide Privacy Tour," depicted the "Prince and Princess of Canada" campaigning for their privacy in the aftermath of the death of the "Queen of Canada." In one scene, the couple appears on a fictional Canadian morning show, holding "We Want Privacy" placards. The anchor asks the prince: "Let me start with you, sir. You lived a life with the royal family, you had everything handed to you but you say your life has been hard and now you've written all about it in your new book: Waaagh." The princess said: "I was totally like, 'You should write a book 'cause your family's, like, stupid and then so are, like, journalists." The interviewer says, "So you hate journalists? And now you wrote a book that reports on the lives of the royal family? So, you're a journalist." Jack Royston is chief royal correspondent for Newsweek, based in London. You can find him on Twitter at @jack_royston and read his stories on Newsweek's The Royals Facebook page. Do you have a question about King Charles III, William and Kate, Meghan and Harry, or their family that you would like our experienced royal correspondents to answer? Email royals@ We'd love to hear from you.
Cosmopolitan
4 hours ago
- Cosmopolitan
Breaking down the action-packed ending of ‘The Waterfront' season one
Within the span of seven episodes, Netflix's latest drama series The Waterfront has unraveled the perfect façade of the wealthy Buckley family, showing the dark and ugly things they've been hiding from Havenport society, from their employees, and from each other. The eighth and final episode of The Waterfront season one is a satisfying culmination of events, tying a lot of loose ends together neatly – more-or-less. Though, of course, because drugs, guns, fishing boats, family drama, and a sociopathic narcissistic bad guy are involved, it's definitely a messy, intense, and bloody battle to the finish. Besides all the action, audiences also get to see some heartwarming moments, redemption arcs, and a tease of what might be another season to come—with a whole new captain possibly taking charge of the Buckley family ship. A lot certainly happens within the span of the finale's 43-minute run, but we've got you covered. Here's the ultimate breakdown of the last episode of The Waterfront. In the seventh episode, the Buckleys deal with the repercussions of their attempt to take out Grady (Topher Grace). Grady had been a little too close to their family for comfort, and Harlan (Holt McCallany) has been trying to cut him loose only to be met with brute force, torture, and threats to his family's lives. So as part of the business deal Cane (Jake Weary) and Harlan (Holt McCallany) made with the Parkers—who run a big drug-smuggling operation, and with whom they used to be involved with—the Parkers's men would kill the drug supplier for the Buckleys. Unfortunately, that plan didn't work out. And as revenge for this attempt at his life, Grady's men abduct Bree (Melissa Benoist). Bree wakes up on Grady's yacht, figures out what's going on, but is surprised to see her teen son Diller aboard with her. Diller tells her that he saw the men take her and snuck onto the boat to try and save her. While she appreciates the gesture, Bree tells Diller to hide, protect himself, and make sure no one else knows he's there. This plan ultimately fails, and when Bree takes a stab at Grady, he shoots her in the leg—figuring he only needs to hold one Buckley as hostage. As Bree's leg bleeds out, she gets thrown overboard. But Diller manages to throw a raft over to his mom before she drifts away. As soon as Harlan learns about his daughter Bree's kidnapping, he gears up for battle. Grady wanted to take Harlan in exchange for Bree, but that would make it too easy to kill them both off. So Cane, and his half-brother Shawn (Rafael L. Silva), decide they're coming with. They hide in a secret compartment of their boat, and ambush Grady and his men just in time to stop them from killing Harlan. They retrieve Diller, but soon discover that Bree has been thrown overboard and is floating away somewhere out in the ocean. A gunfight and chase on the yacht ensues. It ultimately ends with Grady, cornered by Harlan and Cane at the bow of his own boat. He tries to talk his way out, speaking to Harlan about how Cane isn't worthy to be his son because he's a coward and isn't willing to do what it takes to get the job done. Grady goads Cane, saying that he doesn't even have it in him to shoot him then and there. And in a split-second, before Grady could even finish his whole rant—much to Harlan's surprise (as well as the audience's, I'm sure)—Cane shoots him in the head multiple times and his dead body drops in the water. Though shaken by these events, the Buckleys move quickly to rescue Bree. All alone, on a raft while bleeding to death, Bree has a flashback and is finally able to forgiver her nine-year-old self for not having been able to help her grandpa when he was tortured and killed in his own home. In real time, she then finds the strength to use a flare gun to send a signal for rescue. This is when her family finally finds her and rushes her back to shore to get the care she needs at a hospital. Diller is happy to find out that his mom's surgery goes well and tells her while she's in recovery that he doesn't want to move out of Havenport with his dad. He wants to stay in Havenport to be with her. Meanwhile, on land, another one of the Buckley women is trying to handle her own problems. Upon learning of her husband Cane's infidelity, Peyton (Danielle Campbell) marches off to Jenna's (Humberly González) house to confront her. However, things don't pan out the way that Peyton imagined as she's met with a Jenna who's just returned from the hospital with the news that her ill dad had just passed away. Instead of giving Jenna an earful, Peyton ends up helping her with everything—from funeral arrangements to calling Jenna's family for support. And though Jenna tries to apologize and talk about everything with Cane, Peyton stops her and says that's a conversation they can have another time, if needed. When Cane gets back from all the action out at sea, he goes to Jenna's house. He tells her that he's heard the news about her father's death, so he wanted to come over to check-in on her and provide some comfort. But instead of welcoming him into the house, Jenna tells him about Peyton's visit and how incredibly kind she was to her despite the fact that she's been sleeping with her husband. This is when Jenna says that Cane was probably just a distraction from the terrible things happening in her life—from her dad's illness, from her impending divorce—and that she's probably the same to him. She tells him never to return to her house again. Cane is greeted at home by Peyton, who has a glass of scotch ready for him. They have an honest conversation about where they want their relationship to go from here, and Cane says that he wants to do better by his family, his wife, and himself. Peyton then says that she'll make sure that everything between them is alright, insinuating that no one and nothing can get in her way when it comes to securing their future. Though they appear to be the town's power couple, it's become clear that Harlan and Belle (Maria Bello) have marital problems of their own. They've been lying to and cheating on each other, but they've stuck through it all to appear as a united front. The events that have transpired with Grady, and dealing with all these threats to their family, have made their bond stronger. But while they seem to kiss and make up, it's clear that Belle is still hiding something from her husband. One of the big revelations during this season is Shawn's identity as Harlan's son with their now-deceased friend Bebe West. He came to Havenport wanting to learn more about his father, the Buckley family, and see if he could finally find the place where he belongs. It turns out that he has, and that he's staying with his newfound fam for the foreseeable future—which makes total sense given the rollercoaster he's been through with them. We have to remember that the reason why the Buckleys got into this whole mess in the first place was because of financial trouble. They were $2 million in debt to the bank, and moving drugs was a way to earn money to pay that back as well as ensure the future of the family fishery and restaurants. Belle initially had a plan—behind Harlan's back—to work with a local businessman named Wes Larsen (Dave Annable) to develop some parcels of land they owned by the beachfront. But things went sideways after she ended up sleeping with him and things got complicated. So when Belle tried to get the deal back, Wes refused. However, while sorting out all the Grady stuff, Emmett Parker (Terry Serpico) offers her a deal to help them out—but only if she's in the driver's seat, and not her husband. At the end of the episode, Belle meets with Emmett in the dead of night, and it seems as though she's accepted his offer. And to kick things off, Emmett decides to bring Belle a gift: a bloody Wes, tied to a chair. Emmett then introduces Belle as Wes's new boss, to which the poor tortured man has no choice but to agree with. This ending teases up a second season in which Belle double-crosses her own husband in order to take charge, and possibly save their business from ruin. Although, naturally, working with a crime family such as the Parkers is sure to have its own potentially-deadly consequences.
Cosmopolitan
5 hours ago
- Cosmopolitan
Where is KayDianna from Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders now, after she was suspended from the team?
It's that time of the year again. Specifically, the time of the year that you force all your friends to learn the entire "Thunderstruck" routine. In other words, season two of America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders just dropped and it's somehow even more dramatic than last season? Mostly because of the team's trip to the Bahamas, which will go down in INFAMY (in my mind). Quick recap: Chandi broke one of the DCC's many, many rules and invited a random man into her shared hotel room – which understandably made her teammates feel unsafe. Chandi ended up taking a leave of absence, and KayDianna stepped up as First Leader. But things took a turn when KayDianna went on TikTok and referenced Chandi and the trip. To be fair, she didn't mention Chandi by name, but was still accused of "being a bully and harassing" and was suspended from the team. KayDianna ended up quitting DCC, and told Netflix producers, "I definitely didn't feel supported, I felt like I was just a body. It was as if Chandi got the perks of being a First Leader and I got the responsibility part of it. When all this went down I was confused, my teammates were confused, we just didn't know what was gonna happen." So, what's KayDianna up to post DCC? First of all... "After prayerful consideration, I have made the decision to step away from my role with the Dallas Cowboys organisation," she said. "While this was not the ending I had envisioned, it is one I felt led to make for myself, in full faith and peace. I'm deeply grateful for four unforgettable seasons – filled with growth, meaningful friendships, and memories that will stay with me forever. Though this door has closed, I trust fully in god's plan and the new doors he is preparing to open. I do not view this as a setback, but as a divine setup for what's next. He is not finished with me yet, and I am stepping forward with expectation and joy for all he has in store. Thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey – I look forward to sharing the next one with you." In multiple TikToks, no less! While it doesn't seem like many current DCCs publicly interact with KayDianna on her social, Reece went ahead and commented "Crying all over again 😭" on her TikTok about leaving. Oh, and KayDianna posted this chat with Reece just a few weeks ago: Now that she's not on DCC, KayDianna has been working on her podcast, as well as teaching dance classes, and working as a competition judge. She's also happily married and just took a cute trip with her husband to France: In other words, she's booked and busy!
