The Politics of Ecstasy by Timothy Leary [FIRST EDITION • FIRST PRINTING] 1968 • G.P. Putnam's Sons

The Politics of Ecstasy by Timothy Leary

FIRST EDITION • FIRST PRINTING [1968] G.P. PUTNAM'S SONS

True 1st of this 1960's drug classic.

Hardcover with dust jacket in very good reading condition. 

Dust jacket shows wear and tear to edges (all tears now sealed) and some staining to underside, otherwise vibrant and in tact; now housed in a new HQ brodart jacket protector. 

Book itself is in nice shape.  Clean, tight and square copy with one mild albeit large water stain to rear cloth.

Interior reads beautifully.  Book had some underlining and a few notes written lightly in pencil-- all have been removed.  May show some trace underline ghost marks. 

Otherwise, pages are clean, bright and read good as new. 

Messiah, martyr, and high priest of the psychedelic, Dr Timothy Leary speaks out in this extraordinary testament.

Dr Leary was first plunged into the mind-expanding visionary maelstrom one sunny afternoon in Cuernavaca, when he ate a handful of sacred mushrooms; in this startlingly candid collection of essays in defense of the ecstasy he discovered for the first time that afternoon are the documents of his own spiritual search and the fantastic entrance to the psychedelic world.

Here is the outspoken Playboy interview revealing the sexual power of LSD-a statement that many believe played a key role in provoking Leary's incarceration by the authorities; an early outline of the neurological theory that became Leary's classic eight-circuit model of the human nervous system; an insightful exploration of the life and work of novelist Hermann Hesse; an effervescent dialogue with humorist Paul Krassner; and an impassioned defense of what Leary called "The Fifth Freedom"-the right to get high.