
The Acid Queen
The Psychedelic Life and Counterculture Rebellion of Rosemary Woodruff Leary
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Narrated by:
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Susannah Cahalan
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By:
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Susannah Cahalan
About this listen
“Shines a light on one of the twentieth century’s most amazing untold life stories. ... An essential read—and an unforgettable trip.”—Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road
“Cahalan details a piece of lost but fascinating history, the story of a woman who embodied an era of freedom, experimentation, and psychedelic adventure. Meticulously reported and beautifully crafted.”—Susan Orlean
The untold story of the woman who played a critical role in bringing psychedelics into the mainstream—until her audacious exploits forced her into the shadows—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Brain on Fire
Rosemary Woodruff Leary has been known only as the wife of Timothy Leary, the Harvard professor-turned-psychedelic high priest, whose jailbreak captivated the counterculture and whose life on the run with Rosemary inflamed the government. But Rosemary was more than a mere accessory. She was a beatnik, a psychonaut, and a true believer who tested the limits of her mind and the expectations for women of her time.
Long overlooked by those who have venerated her husband, Rosemary spent her life on the forefront of the counterculture, working with Leary on his books and speeches, sewing his clothing, and shaping—for better and for worse—the media’s narrative about LSD. Ultimately, Rosemary sacrificed everything for the safety of her fellow psychedelic pioneers and the preservation of her husband’s legacy.
Drawing from a wealth of interviews, diaries, archives, and unpublished sources, Susannah Cahalan writes the definitive portrait of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, reclaiming her narrative and her voice from those who dismissed her. Thrilling, revelatory, and utterly compelling, The Acid Queen shines an overdue spotlight on a pioneering psychedelic seeker.
©2025 Susannah Cahalan (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Cahalan shines a light on one of the twentieth century’s most amazing untold life stories. Rosemary Woodruff Leary blazed an astonishing trail through the red hot center of Sixties counterculture—the downtown Beats, the pioneers of hallucinogenics, the Summer of Love, rock and roll royalty, the Weather Underground, the Black Panthers, and more. With her captivating storytelling, Cahalan helps us all see this wildly misunderstood epoch of American life with new eyes. An essential read—and an unforgettable trip.”—Robert Kolker, author of Hidden Valley Road
“Rosemary Woodruff Leary was one of the great unsung heroines of the 1960s. Susannah Cahalan’s brilliant account of this woman’s incredibly courageous life in troubled times not only brings Rosemary back to life but also finally accords her the place in the history of that era she has always so richly deserved.”—Robert Greenfield, author of Timothy Leary: A Biography
“A fascinating portrait of an unsung shero of the counterculture. I couldn’t put it down!”—Holly George-Warren, author of Janis: Her Life and Music
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- Stories
- By: Marie-Helene Bertino
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 5 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Death-shaped entities—with all of their humor and strangeness—haunt the twelve stories in Exit Zero. Vampires, ghost girls, fathers, blank spaces, day-old peaches, and famous paintings all pierce through their world into ours, reminding us to pay attention! and look alive! and offering many other flashes of wisdom from the oracle and author of Beautyland, Marie-Helene Bertino.
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Of My Own Making
- A Memoir
- By: Daria Burke
- Narrated by: Daria Burke
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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More than a story of personal triumph, Of My Own Making is a soulful and scientific exploration of the power to shape one's destiny. In facing the stark reality of her past, Burke reminds us that every moment demands a choice, and that we owe it to ourselves to reparent our inner child and reclaim the lives we deserve. Part memoir, part methodology, it is a fearless rallying cry inspiring us to excavate and examine the stories that define our lives. Ultimately, the narratives that we craft with ourselves are the only ones that matter.
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An amazing personal account of resilience backed with the science to explain how it happened
- By Gef12 on 06-16-25
By: Daria Burke
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Psychedelic Refugee
- The League for Spiritual Discovery, the 1960s Cultural Revolution, and 23 Years on the Run
- By: Rosemary Woodruff Leary
- Narrated by: Kristy Gill
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Shares Rosemary’s early experimentation with psychedelics in the 1950s, her development through the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, and her involvement, at first exciting but then heartbreaking, with Dr. Timothy Leary. Describes her LSD trips with Leary, their time at the famous Millbrook estate, their experiences as fugitives abroad, including their captivity by the Black Panthers in Algeria, and Rosemary’s years on the run after she and Timothy separated.
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Disjointed but fascinating
- By L_Haynes on 05-26-25
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On Muscle
- The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters
- By: Bonnie Tsui
- Narrated by: Bonnie Tsui
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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From the bestselling author of Why We Swim comes a mind-expanding exploration of muscle—from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue—that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.
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Muscle wisdom
- By marksolomon on 04-24-25
By: Bonnie Tsui
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Medicine River
- A Story of Survival and the Legacy of Indian Boarding Schools
- By: Mary Annette Pember
- Narrated by: Erin Tripp
- Length: 9 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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A sweeping and deeply personal account of Native American boarding schools in the United States, and the legacy of abuse wrought by them in an attempt to destroy Native culture and life.
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Medicine River really brought a lot of feelings to the surface from my own experience with my family.🪶💔🥀
- By Nokomii on 05-16-25
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Fairyboy
- Growing Up Gay and Out in Pre-Stonewall New York and Beyond
- By: Garrett Glaser
- Narrated by: Garrett Glaser
- Length: 8 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Garrett was an unusually adventurous and self-assured teenager. In Fairyboy, listeners will follow as he explores the hidden world of gay New York, from the infamous “trucks” along the West Side Highway to the Continental Baths in its opening weeks.
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I am the author of Fairyboy.
- By Garrett on 07-01-25
By: Garrett Glaser
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The Last Great Dream
- How Bohemians Became Hippies and Created the Sixties
- By: Dennis McNally
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 13 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Fascinating, far-reaching, and definitive, THE LAST GREAT DREAM is the ultimate guide to a generation-defining countercultural movement, an Underground 101 course for newcomers and aficionados alike.
By: Dennis McNally
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Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War
- By: Tim Rowland
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Strange and Obscure Stories of the Civil War is an entertaining look at the Civil War stories that don’t get told, and the misadventures you haven’t read about in history books. Share in all the humorous and strange events that took place behind the scenes of some of the most famous Civil War moments.
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INTERESTING & FUNNY
- By The Louligan on 08-01-14
By: Tim Rowland
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The Fate of the Generals
- MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines
- By: Jonathan Horn
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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For the doomed stand American forces made in the Philippines at the start of World War II, two generals received their country’s highest military award, the Medal of Honor. One was the charismatic and controversial Douglas MacArthur, whose orders forced him to leave his soldiers on the islands to starvation and surrender but whose vow to return echoed around the globe. The other was the gritty Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright, who became a hero to the troops whose fate he insisted on sharing even when it meant becoming the highest-ranking American prisoner of the Japanese.
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Wonderful book
- By Scott Brimer on 06-09-25
By: Jonathan Horn
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So Very Small
- How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs–and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease that reveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.
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Great read!
- By Dr. B on 06-17-25
By: Thomas Levenson
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Spetsnaz
- A History of the Soviet and Russian Special Forces
- By: Tor Bukkvoll
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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In January 1951, Lieutenant Evgeniy Borisov was sent to the headquarters of the Soviet 5th Army in Spassk-Dalnii, a small city in the Russian Far East. Borisov was there on a secret mission. Together with his superior, Major Rusinov, his job was to establish the 91st Special Forces Company. The 91st was to be one of forty-six similar units spread out across the Soviet Union. The new forces were called "spetsnaz"—short for spetsnialnoe naznachenie, which translates to "special purpose."
By: Tor Bukkvoll
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The Book of Form and Emptiness
- A Novel
- By: Ruth Ozeki
- Narrated by: Ruth Ozeki
- Length: 19 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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One year after the death of his beloved musician father, thirteen-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices. The voices belong to the things in his house—a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. Although Benny doesn't understand what these things are saying, he can sense their emotional tone; some are pleasant, a gentle hum or coo, but others are snide, angry and full of pain. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous.
By: Ruth Ozeki
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The Determined Spy
- The Turbulent Life and Times of CIA Pioneer Frank Wisner
- By: Douglas Waller
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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An intimate and expertly researched biography of little-known early CIA leader Frank Wisner, whose behind-the-scenes influence on Cold War policy—and hundreds of highly secret anti-Soviet missions—resonates with the international crises we see today.
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Essential For Understanding The Cold War
- By Demetrius Walker on 05-13-25
By: Douglas Waller
Important story/History.
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