Timothy Leary's "High Priest" (1968)

New York City: The New American Library and World Publishing Company (Cleveland, Ohio, US) (book, memoir), 1968. 9.25” x 6.25” x 1.375”, 353 pages, hardcover with dust-jacket.

High Priest by Timothy Leary, a memoir spanning the years 1959-1962, as published in a first hardcover edition by New American Library (New York City) and World Publishing Company (Cleveland, Ohio, US) in 1968. Art by Allen Atwell and Michael Green. Jacket design by Paul Bacon. Jacket photograph by Fred McDarrah.

Chapter 11, "When the Celestial Messenger Comes Wearing a Fedora, Can You Suspend Your Games?", pp. 213-232, is completely about Leary's experiences with William S. Burroughs.

William S. Burroughs contributes – at the outer margin of this chapter – a letter to Leary from Tangier dated 6 May 1961, as well as excerpts from Minutes to Go, and the text of "The Night Before Thinking" – including notes on Hassan-i-Sabbah and apomorphine.

This copy was acquired from Frey Fine Books (Rougemont, North Carolina, US).

Maynard & Miles B43.

Shoaf II.52.

Contents:

• Acknowledgments
• Note
• High Priest:
• "Trip 1: Death of the Mind: Abysmal Prelude, January 1959 (Guide: Godsdog)"
• John Fowles: excerpts from The Magus
• "Trip 2: God Reveals Himself in Mysterious Forms: The Sacred Mushrooms of Mexico, August 1960 (Guide: Robert Gordon Wasson)"
• Robert Gordon Wasson: excerpts from Hallucinogenic Fungi of Mexico
• "Trip 3: The Revelation is Awe-Full: Youthful Courage (Guide: Jack Leary)"
• excerpt from Playboy magazine, a profile on Leary and interview
• excerpt from The Reporter
• excerpt from Leary's Psychedelic Prayers
• excerpt from Time magazine
• excerpt from Cosmopolitan magazine
• "Trip 4: The Sacrament Solves No Problems: The Dark Paradox, October 1960 (Guide: Aldous Huxley)"
• excerpt from The Saturday Evening Post
• William James: excerpt from The Varieties of Religious Experience
• excerpt from Psychiatric Report
• "from the Boston Record American mailbag"
• excerpt from the Washington Evening Star
• Aldous Huxley: from Island
• excerpt from Harvard Psychedelic Research Project
• "Trip 5: You Will Be Hurled Beyond the Good and Evil Game: The Rite to Be Wrong, November 1960 (Guide: Susan Leary)"
• Susan Leary: memories
• excerpt from the transcript of a Federal Court (Laredo, Texas) trial
• "Trip 6: The Blueprint to Turn-On the World: Ecstatic Politics, December 1960 (Guide: Allen Ginsberg)"
• Allen Ginsberg: December 1960 interview
• Allen Ginsberg: January 1961 interview
• Allen Ginsberg: February 1961 interview
• Allen Ginsberg: March 1961 interview
• Allen Ginsberg: April 1961 interview
• "Trip 7: You Have to Go Out of Your Mind to Use Your Head: Arthur Koestler's High Climb (Guide: Frank Barron)"
• Hermann Hesse: excerpt from Within and Without
• Arthur Koestler: excerpt from The Lotus and the Robot
• Arthur Koestler: excerpt from "Return Trip to Nirvana", from the London Sunday Telegraph
• Hermann Hesse: excerpt from Steppenwolf
• "Trip 8: The Random Spinning of the Mind Must Be Centered by Prayer: An Exercise in Suggestibility, February 1961 (Guide: Richard Alpert)"
• assorted headlines on Leary and LSD
• "Trip 9: The Sacrament Can Liberate the Imprisoned: The Sacred Mushrooms Go to Jail. March 1961 (Guide: Willy (A Black Junkie))"
• from the Second Annual Report: Psilocybin Rehabilitation Project
• from the Boston Herald and Traveler
• "Trip 10: And the Prisoners Will Become Priests: The Convicts Break-Out, Spring 1961 (Guides: Jim Berrigan, Don Sainten)"
• "Prisoner Trip Report #1"
• "Prisoner Trip Report #2"
• "Trip 11: When the Celestial Messenger Comes Wearing a Fedora, Can You Suspend Your Games? Bill Burroughs Drops Out of Our Clan. Summer 1961 (Guide: Bill Burroughs)"
• William S. Burroughs: letter to Timothy Leary, Tangier, 6 May 1961
• William S. Burroughs: excerpt from Minutes to Go
• William S. Burroughs: "The Night Before Thinking" and notes on Hassan-i-Sabbah and apomorphine
• "Trip 12: LSD–The Drop-Out Drug: The Sacrament Administered by a Divine Rascal. Fall 1961 (Guide: Michael Hollingshead)"
• J. Everett Finch, Cambridge Travel Service: letter to Timothy Leary, 19 June 1962
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary, n.d.
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary, 1 November 1962
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary, 26 November 1962
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary, n.d.
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary, 20 January 1964
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary 18 December 1963
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary 28 January 1964
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Excelsior Scientific Trust, 25 May 1964
• Michael Hollingshead: letter to Timothy Leary 26 May 1967
• "Trip 13: Are Heaven and Hell Real? Programming and Visionary Experience. Winter 1961 (Guide: Ralph Metzner)"
• Timothy Leary: excerpt from Innerspace
• Rev. Michael Francis Itkin: from "An Open Letter to Timothy Leary"
• from Dick Alpert's Report
• Timothy Leary: excerpt from "The Experimental Typewriter" in the Psychedelic Review
• "Trip 14: When Will You Be Ready to Admit You Are a Divine Messenger? The Sacrament Goes to Church. Spring 1962 (Guide: Sakti, Divine Nun)"
• from Time magazine
• Timothy Leary: excerpt from "The Religious Experience, Its Production and Interpretation" in the Psychedelic Review
• "Trip 15: Your Faith Will Perform Miracles: The Good Friday Experiment. April 1962 (Guides: Walter Clark, Huston Smith, Walter Pahnke)"
• Johannes Scotus Erigena: excerpt from Patrologici Latina
• from The Confessions of St. Augustine
• Anne Fremantle: excerpt from The Age of Belief
• from The Confessions of St. Augustine
• Aldous Huxley: excerpt from Doors of Perception
• Wilson van Dusen: interview excerpt
• excerpt from the Walter C. Clark Research Project Report
• "Trip 16: After Your Humiliation, Why Come Down? The Mexican Paradise Lost. June 1962 (Guide: Krishna)"
• Timothy Leary: excerpt from Start Your Own Religion
• Timothy Leary: from "How to turn-on"
• Appendix/Bibliography