
Sisters of the Extreme
Women Writing on the Drug Experience, Including Charlotte Bronte, Louisa May Alcott, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou, Billie Holiday, Nina Hagen, Carrie Fisher, and Others
Park Street Press,U.S.
Published on 22. June 2000
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-89281-757-3 (ISBN)
Description
• An anthology of writings by some of the most influential women in history on the often misunderstood and misrepresented female drug experience.
• With great honesty, bravery, and frankness, women from diverse backgrounds write about their drug experiences.
Women have been experimenting with drugs since prehistoric times, and yet published accounts of their views on the drug experience have been relegated to either antiseptic sociological studies or sensationalized stories splashed across the tabloids. The media has given us an enduring, but inaccurate, stereotype of a female drug user: passive, addicted, exploited, degraded, promiscuous. But the selections in this anthology--penned by such famous names as Billie Holiday, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou, and Carrie Fisher--show us that the real experiences of women are anything but stereotypical.
Sisters of the Extreme provides us with writings by women from diverse occupations and backgrounds, from prostitute to physician, who through their use of drugs dared cross the boundaries set by society--often doing so with the hope of expanding themselves and their vision of the world. Whether with LSD, peyote, cocaine, heroine, MDMA, or marijuana, these women have sought to reach, through their experimentation, other levels of consciousness. Sometimes their quests have brought unexpected rewards, other times great suffering and misfortune. But wherever their trips have left them, these women have lived courageously--if sometimes dangerously--and written about their journeys eloquently.
• With great honesty, bravery, and frankness, women from diverse backgrounds write about their drug experiences.
Women have been experimenting with drugs since prehistoric times, and yet published accounts of their views on the drug experience have been relegated to either antiseptic sociological studies or sensationalized stories splashed across the tabloids. The media has given us an enduring, but inaccurate, stereotype of a female drug user: passive, addicted, exploited, degraded, promiscuous. But the selections in this anthology--penned by such famous names as Billie Holiday, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou, and Carrie Fisher--show us that the real experiences of women are anything but stereotypical.
Sisters of the Extreme provides us with writings by women from diverse occupations and backgrounds, from prostitute to physician, who through their use of drugs dared cross the boundaries set by society--often doing so with the hope of expanding themselves and their vision of the world. Whether with LSD, peyote, cocaine, heroine, MDMA, or marijuana, these women have sought to reach, through their experimentation, other levels of consciousness. Sometimes their quests have brought unexpected rewards, other times great suffering and misfortune. But wherever their trips have left them, these women have lived courageously--if sometimes dangerously--and written about their journeys eloquently.
Reviews / Votes
"Sisters of the Extreme is a great collection and well worth a read, for those who like great literature and who are interested in Woman/Gender Studies."--Psychedelic Press UK, January 2013More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Rochester, VT
United States
Publishing group
Inner Traditions Bear and Company
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 252 mm
Width: 202 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
767 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-89281-757-3 (9780892817573)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Cynthia Palmer | Michael Horowitz
Sisters of the Extreme
Women Writing on the Drug Experience: Charlotte Brontë, Louisa May Alcott, Anaïs Nin, Maya Angelou, Billie Holiday, Nina Hagen, Diane di Prima, Carrie Fisher, and Many Others
E-Book
05/2000
Park Street Press
€11.86
Available for download
Persons
Longtime drug historians, Cynthia Palmer and Michael Horowitz are the directors of the Fitz Hugh Ludlow Memorial Library, the nation’s largest private collection of drug literature. They are also the editors of Moksha: Aldous Huxley’s Classic Writings on Psychedelics and the Visionary Experience. Mr. Horowitz is the editor of Timothy Leary’s Chaos and Cyberculture and a bibliography of his writings.
Content
Foreword
Preface
Introduction
Images of Women and Drugs in Myth and History
Opium and the Victorian Imagination
Expatriates and Vagabonds
Mainline Ladies
Psychedelic Pioneers
Beats and Hippies
Choosers and Abusers
Shaman Women at the End of the Millennium