George Sand * Susan Sontag * Edith Piaf * Louisa May Alcott * Edith Wharton * Billie Holiday * Maria Sabina * Anita Hoffman * Charlotte Bronte * Diane di Prima * Sarah Bernhardt * Elizabeth Barrett Browning * Margaret Fuller * Anais Nin * Laura Huxley

These women are part of a virtually unknown tradition in women's history and a rich genre of drug and altered-states literature.

This book is the first collection of women's writings on their experiences with mind-altering drugs, form the Victorian to the present post-psychedelic eras. The 'shamans' among the dozens of contributors communicate drugs' revelations, visions, and healing powers, like a primitive tribe's sorcerer. The 'mainline ladies' are the pleasure and oblivion seekers, the addicts and abusers.

'Shaman Woman, Mainline Lady' shows that, for a long time, women have experimented with drugs courageously, lived dangerously, and written about it eloquently.

This book should not be as boring as it is. ( )