Hilaritas Press releases Leary's 'Terra II ... A Way Out' and new podcast

 

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The news is coming thick and fast this week. When I checked the Hilaritas Press website for today's 23rd of the month podcast, I saw that it was Oz Fritz on Timothy Leary's Terra II ... A Way Out, and I thought, "Gee, that's odd. Why would they feature a podcast on a book that hasn't been released?" Well, there's an answer: It has been released! 

It's a reprint of a Leary book that's long out of print. "L. Wayne Benner, Joanna Leary & Guanine" also are credited as authors. This is likely the definitive SMI²LE book -- Leary was in close touch with Robert Anton Wilson at the time -- but we'll have to see now that I can finally read it, after finishing the new RAW bio. 

Official blurb: "The hope and optimism of the 1960s finds no better expression than a proposed journey aboard the space-city/time-ship Terra II. Received and written as a group invocation led by Dr. Timothy Leary tuning in and turning on to cosmic signaling and DNA intelligence. Herein we find the SMI²LE formula fully elucidated and mapped out in a practical application that directly confronts many of the problems and challenges that would inevitably arise. Far ahead of its time, but as timely as ever, this visionary blueprint provides one answer to the questions, where do we go from here and how do we get there?"

Interesting bit from the book: "Many tbanks to Nick Helweg-Larsen for lending Hilaritas Press his copy of Terra II. Of the 1,000 original copies of the first edition, Nick had number 18." 

The new book sticks closely to the original edition, but a few changes were made, all in a positive direction. Also, there is a new introduction by Oz Fritz.

Speaking of Mr. Fritz, here's the podcast, also likely available on your favorite podcasting app. 

Joanna Harcourt-Smith has died [UPDATED]

Twitter account photo. Source. 

Joanna Harcourt-Smith, Timothy Leary's companion for much of the 1970s, has died, according to a Saturday night Tweet from the Timothy Leary News and Views Twitter account.  [UPDATE: Confirmation on Facebook has finally been posted.] A GoFundMe account had been launched to help her deal with a struggle against cancer. 

As the Wikepedia bio relates, Harcourt-Smith had more many recent years run her Future Primitive podcast; it appears that the last one, "Heartmending," was released on August 23.  Her book, Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love Story, was a memoir of her Leary days. Oz Fritz reviewed it on his blog, writing, "Anyone interested in learning, and more importantly gaining some experiential feeling for the bardo should read this true voyaging tale.  Tripping the Bardo With Timothy Leary shines as a multifaceted diamond, a precious stone of multitudinous beauty and tragedy." Harcourt-Smith posted a comment thanking him for the review. 

Oz Fritz on the new Joanna Harcourt-Smith book

When the new Joanna Harcourt-Smith book on her relationship with Timothy Leary came out, I wondered if it had anything about Robert Anton Wilson in it. Oz Fritz has answered my question with his carefully-written review of the book: 

"Fans of Robert Anton Wilson will note that Leary reread Illuminatus! toward the end of his prison years.  That's the only appearance of Wilson in this tale.  Other books Leary requested get mentioned, as well as how many times he read Gravity's Rainbow."

On Twitter, Leary biographer John Higgs commented: "Presumably that would be pre-publication (Leary was released in Feb 75), so it might well have been the unedited version."

In any event, Oz's review makes it clear that Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary is well-worth reading ("This book profoundly move me") and an effective reply to the sometimes harsh criticism that's been piled on Harcourt-Smith. "Joanna Harcourt-Smith has endured unfair criticism at times that she was riding on Timothy Leary's coattails.  After reading her book, this criticism seems ridiculous, quite the opposite," he writes.

See also Oz's post on the most recent Leary biography; note that Oz has carefully read all of the Leary biographies. He's also read many of Leary's books. Nobody is better qualified to review Joanna's book.

Joanna pops up on the comments.

And when I wrote to her, asking if there will be a version for Kindle, she replied that it will be out in about two weeks.

New book on Timothy Leary

I'm looking forward to hearing what the Timothy Leary scholars have to say, but this seems like it would be important: Timothy Leary's lover for much of the 1970s, Joanna Harcourt-Smith, has published a book about Leary, Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love Story.

Here is the Amazon blurb: "Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary is a scathingly honest and breathless autobiographical memoir by Joanna Harcourt-Smith, the British Jet-Set "hippie heiress" scapegoat for Timothy Leary, the Harvard psychologist "Pied Piper" of the Sixties generation. Between 1972 and 1977, Joanna was his lover and voice to the outside world while he was in prison for three-and-a-half of those years. Tripping the Bardo is a missing piece of the Sixties puzzle. Joanna Harcourt-Smith knows. As an eyewitness, she was right at the heart of it. From the Rolling Stones and Andy Warhol to the relentless FBI harassment of the political Left, Tripping the Bardo moves at the fast pace of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll that the Sixties were known for. The author's voice is that of a spoiled and damaged socialite but with an unrelenting sense of humor and ability to bring to life an outrageous set of characters – aristocrats and drug dealers, rockers and poets, crime lords and double agents. As Hermann Hesse said: I'm beginning to hear the teachings of my blood pulsing within me. My story isn't pleasant, it's not sweet and harmonious like invented stories; it tastes of folly and bewilderment, of madness and dream, like the life of all people who no longer want to lie to themselves."

Her "Future Primitive" podcasting site (it looks interesting) is here.   Her official biography is here.