1. SUBJECTS - maximum of two: a. New York b. LSD and psychedelics 2. TAGLINE - maximum of 20 words. A ground-breaking tour of the city''spsychedelic landscapes. 3. BOOK DESCRIPTION As LSD moves back into the medical arena, acid continues to evokepowerful memories of the psychedelic Sixties on the American west coast.
But inthis lively account of a criminally neglected site, Chris Elcock reveals a muchdeeper history of psychedelics spanning across the postwar period and beyond.As a major hub for the production, distribution, investigation and consumptionof these drugs, New York City gave birth to a unique psychedelic culture thatwas a fitting reflection of this global metropolis. Based on years of archival research, interviews with former acid headsand a wide range of cultural artefacts, PsychedelicNew York sheds light on decades of psychedelic science, the inception ofpsychedelic art, the rise and fall of the counter-culture, drug-infusedspirituality and competing drug subcultures. It tells the stories of less-known New Yorkers like Holocaustsurvivor Nina Graboi, artist Isaac Abrams and real estate agent BernardFriedman, whose lives were dramatically altered by the psychedelic experience, whileoffering new insights into Timothy Leary''s involvement in the city. PsychedelicNew York is a long-overdue history of LSD and urban psychedelia. With its quirkyanecdotes, engaging prose and thoughtful analysis, this comprehensive focus onthe psychedelic experience it is likely to appeal to academic and generalaudiences alike. 4. AUTHOR BIO - one sentence.
Chris Elcock isan award-wining independent historian of LSD and psychedelics. from mif: In the 1960s, a growing number of Americans began experimenng with psychedelic drugs such as LSD and other plantderived extracts that altered percepon, mood, and cognion. The early history of psychedelic culture in the US is ooen told through anecdotes about San Francisco''s HaightAshbury district and the west coast adventures of the Merry Prankster. Chris Elcock argues that this focus has drawn aenon away from another major centre of early acid use and psychedelic acvity: New York City. This book is about the history of psychedelic New York, which was home to a signiFicant LDS producon centre, a diverse and recepve drugtaking populaon, and a vibrant art, music, and culture scene that welcomed psychedelic inspiraon. Chapter 1 oers an overview of the city''s relaonship with psychoacve drugs from the late 19th century to the early 1960s; it introduces Greenwich Village and its disncve brand of bohemianism. Chapter 2 describes how Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary disseminated psilocybin among the New York wealthy and the avantgarde. Chapter 3 focuses on early research groups and how the city''s psychoanalyc circles became interested in psychedelicbased therapy.
Chapter 4 shows how LSD began to trickle out to the laboratories to reach the streets. Chapters 5 and 6 focus on the psychedelic careers and personal odysseys of Nina Graboi, who became the director of the Center for the League for Spiritual Discovery, and of Isaac Abrams, an inuenal psychedelic arst and curator. Chapter 7 discusses the backlash that occurred in the city as a result of increased drug consumpon. Chapter 8 looks at acid use in Central Park in the early 1970s, at new drug scenes in downtown Manhaan, and at the connued presence of psychedelics despite the growing use of heroin and cocaine in the 1980s.