Millbrook, A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism Recension of 1997 [Paperback]

Art Kleps (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 222 pages
• Publisher: Neo-American Church of Texas (1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0960038868
• ISBN-13: 978-0960038862
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,291,323 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More Than Five Stars!, September 7, 1998

By 

Kevin Sanford ([e-mail]) (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Millbrook, A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism Recension of 1997 (Paperback)

I first heard of Millbrook, the book, 25 years ago after joining the Neo-American Church. I was attending the University of Vermont and bought a copy of the Boo Hoo Bible by Art Kleps (also available from Amazon). During an acid trip several days later I decided that any religion which recognizes synchronicity and yet is irreverant and humorous, and considers psychedelics to be sacraments, was worth becoming a part of. I sent my signed membership card off to someplace in New Mexico. A few weeks later I got a call from a church member who said that the chief boo hoo, Art Kleps, was living in Burlington and wanted to set up an interview with the school newspaper for an upcoming lecture. Synch! I contacted the newspaper to find a reporter and was told that none were available and that unless I did the interview myself it wouldn't be done. Heavy synch! So on a beautifully crisp autumn evening which Vermont in so justly famous for, I walked from my dorm room down to Church Street to meet the one and only chief boo hoo of the Neo-American Church.

My visit with His Highness, chief boo hoo, and his wife, Her Highness, chief bee hee, was an Enlightening experience. It was the first time that I had heard in a coherent fashion the idea that life is a dream and the externality of relations an illusion. That everything is synchronicity. Suddenly all of the pieces fit. I also heard about the chief's new book, Millbrook, which he promised was not only philosophical but also had lurid tales about Timothy Leary and the millionaires of the sixties LSD culture. It was contracted to be published by Regency.

The Regency printing never happened and I didn't have much personal contact with the Church for the next year. But when the magic autumn of Vermont returned I was invited for visits to Court in Vergennes, where Their Highnesses lived in a house in the country. It was here that I would sit in an overstuffed chair and read Millbrook for the first time. It was in manuscript form so there were big ringed notebooks of typed paper. I loved Millbrook then and I love Millbrook now.

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. He feels an immediate affinity with the LSD-gobbling residents, who are described in glorious detail. During this and subsequent visits amazing stories unfold. After the author is fired as a school psychologist in 1964 for writing a paper on marijuana, he buys lakefront property in the Adirondacks for a psychedelic retreat and names it "Morning Glory Lodge." He creates the Neo-American Church, with the clergy being "boo hoos," himself as "chief boo hoo," and psychedelic drugs being sacraments. New members receive five peyote buttons and a membership card. The chief loses the property and in 1967 moves into the psychedelian community of Millbrook, remaining there until police raids and legal pressure force its dissolution in the spring of 1968.

A brief glimpse of a few of many memorable scenes from the book: Allan Watts well-lubricated on whiskey reeling off an amazing eulogy to a recently dead Aldous Huxley. Jack Kerouac smashed on wine and a little LSD visiting a Neo-American meeting in Miami. Timothy Leary being rebuffed after exclaiming, "We are all charlatans, aren't we?" The evil Michael Hollingshead unsuccessfully trying to find a mysterious stash under a rock with a flashlight during a dark and thundery night. The 1967 Fourth of July party at Millbrook with pitchers of acid punch, millionaires dressed in fanciful costumes, an incredible fireworks show and music by the Grateful Dead. Bill Haines, guru of the psychedelic Sri Ram Ashram, reading the chief boo hoo's classic, "The Bombardment and Annihilation of the Planet Saturn," to the Ashram kids. A big acid trip that the author and Haines take with the Hitchcocks which is the best description of a really big one in print. A naked and scrawny Owsley, underground chemist, wandering around Millbrook with his two dim and dusty-looking girlfriends. Owsley bringing his new wonder drug, STP, to Millbrook, with the usual consequences. Dick Alpert, aka "Baba Ram Dass," with a broken arm caused by jumping out of a window on LSD to see if he could fly.

Sitting on an Adirondack wicker chair in front of me are three different versions of Millbrook. To the left is a tattered and yellowed copy of the tabloid version of Millbrook, published by the Church in 1975 in the mountains of Northern Vermont. To the right is the 1977 Bench Press edition, with it's horrible dark-toned cover showing a photograph of the Big House and the sun rising or setting in the north. In the center is the present Recension of 1997, with it's bright yellow cover and author-drawn map and photographs and newspaper articles.

Millbrook, A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism, by Art Kleps, is a fascinating story of the psychedelic sixties and a beautiful explanation of solipsistic nihilism. It has changed over the years. And it just keeps getting better and better.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Millbrook, A Narrative of the Early Years of Ameri..., May 23, 2001

By 

Wayne Reeves (marietta, ga USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Millbrook, A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism Recension of 1997 (Paperback)

I find it interesting that such an intriguing part of sixties history has been written about so little. Before reading Millbrook, my only knowledge of this occurence came from "Acid Dreams", Leary's "Flashbacks" as well as brief mentionings in other biographys about the hippie era such as Wolfe's "Electric Kool Aid...", magazine articles and information on websites. Very little is written of Kleps and for whatever reason, not many other biographers or players at the Millbrook scene found him worthy to write about or include in their memoirs. For this reason, some seem to suspect his legitimacy and accuracy, but then again I have not found one mention of Bill Haines nor the Hitchcock brothers on the web and they were very much a part of the action. It is ironic that this man wrote the most extensive history of this radiant time and psychedelic soap opera which took place in Millbrook, New York. His work is both fascinating and disturbing as he brings the details to light. One such disturbance is the accidental dosing of one of the young Hitchcock kids with an enormous dose of LSD and his parents obvious unconcern as they head to town for dinner. I think some have questioned Kleps truthfullness and his sorting out of the events as their is obvious discrepancies between his writing and others which he candidly points out on his website. Whether this is a moment to moment accurate account of Millbrook I can't say, but I think the man was generally honest and didn't have much to lose by being open and honest about his life. He talks of his alcoholism, drug use, break downs of his family unit without regard as to what others might think and conveys a true genuineness with his expression. I have read in the past that high dosage levels of LSD and alcohol mixed together are a big no-no and wonder how Kleps managed the effects of both, being the supposed recipe for disaster they are.

To me, and I'm no scholar, the style of writing was difficult to follow at times as he jumped around chronilogically and I was required to reference other sources for names and incidents I was unfamiliar with. Kleps was an obvious genious which is evident in his expression of thoughts, vocabulary usage and as a bonus, I found him quite witty with his charactor assessments and his take on individuals and situations. To spend an afternoon with Mr. Kleps would have been worth a small fortune were he still alive and I had a large fortune.

The book did suck me into this era like no other I have read and has propelled me on a steady search for more material and the cross examining of one book against another to get a true sense of what Millbrook and the sixties in general were about. If you are considering this purchase, but are not familiar or only been slightly exposed to these people and events, reading this book first is a mistake. A fair amount of reading and understanding needs to preface this or you will be totally lost. Do your homework first and Millbrook will be a fine reward. One final conclusion is that having read Millbrook, I can claim now more than ever, that as one born in '66 rather then being an older witness to it, I am no closer to understanding the utter lunacy and madness of the Millbrook or California's Acid Test scene then I did when I first heard any of these words uttered. You can gain facts and knowledge that make for interesting conversation, but the true mindset of the scene and the thoughts, raw emotion and sensory overload one must have been enveloped in while hanging out at the Millbrook property are unaccessible. It is simply a moment in time tucked into a capsule which cannot be opened. You were either there or you weren't. Go get the book and write to let me know what you think.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth reading, period., August 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Millbrook, A Narrative of the Early Years of American Psychedelianism Recension of 1997 (Paperback)

Not having any personal familiarity with (most of) the events described in this book, I can't testify to the accuracy or inaccuracy of the historical parts. I don't see how it matters, however, because it is one of the most entertaining reads I've ever had. If you're a 20-something and interested in philosophy, read this book and (if you can get past the rather annoying hagiography in the beginning) you'll enjoy it.

The author has at least one other book out, _The Boohoo Bible_, that is similarly excellent, although it's not a particularly coherent read. More of a source book for random reading...