Timothy Leary’s original typed manuscript for his excellent autobiography Flashbacks is up for auction on eBay. Bidding starts at US$1500. From the listing:
With 31 quarto pages (a few pages are photocopies) extensively hand-corrected by Leary and his editor throughout, who have both made substantial revisions. The typescripts are mainly for the biographical sketches that Leary wrote about his various heroes, including Hermann Hesse, Albert Hofmann, James Joyce, John Lily, Thomas Pynchon, and Gurdjieff, among others. These profiles appeared at the beginning of each chapter throughout the book. Included are other fragments featuring various observations and recollections by Leary. Also present is the text for the dust jacket flaps, a page of “Notes for T. L. to Do,” a page of “Character Tracking,” several photocopied pages of the photos used in the book, and a couple of photograph release forms including one signed by Lawrence Schiller. Photocopies and additional paper material inside a manila folder; everything housed inside a three-ring binder.
Together with the typescript of a 4-page letter by Leary to his publisher titled: “Notes on Michael Kennedy Affair.” A scathing letter in which Leary talks at great length about his grievances with Michael Kennedy, his former lawyer, who, according to Leary, was guilty of much wrongdoing. Leary goes into great, and previously undisclosed, detail about his escape from prison with the aid of the Weather Underground, with references to Allen Ginsberg, Jerry Rubin, Richard Alpert, Nicky Sands, and others. Leary eventually recognized the explosive nature of this letter and never allowed it to be published