Millbrook: A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism, Recension of 2005

A rough outline of major events in the book: In 1960, the author, then a school psychologist, takes a half a gram of pure mescaline sulfate, which he legally orders through the mail, and has a massive visionary trip. Three years later, Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert and Ralph Metzer, Ph.D.s recently ejected from Harvard, move into the Hitchcock property, a 2500-acre estate in Millbrook, wealthy Dutchess County, New York. They were offered a 50 room mansion, the "Big House," by Billy and Tommy Hitchcock, heirs of the Mellon fortune, as a "psychedelic research center." Art Kleps sends Leary a copy of his Neo-Psychopathic Character Test and is invited to visit Millbrook.