Joanna Harcourt-Smith (13 January 1946 – 11 October 2020) was an author, poet, psychedelic activist and the founder of Future Primitive Podcast.
Biography
She was born at the
Palace Hotel, St. Moritz, in Switzerland.
Harcourt-Smith wrote two unpublished biographies and many poems.
[ She is also the author of ''Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love Story''. The book recounts her experiences while "she was a flower-power teenager in the Sixties," lived with the ]Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
in France, cavorted with playboy Gunter Sachs
Fritz Gunter Sachs (14 November 1932 – 7 May 2011, also Gunter Sachs von Opel) was a German photographer, author, Rosenberg student, industrialist, and latterly head of an institute that researched claims of astrology. As a young man he bec ...
, Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol (; ; ; 11 May 190423 January 1989) was a Spanish Surrealism, surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and the striking and bizarr ...
and the Aga Khan
Aga Khan ( fa, آقاخان, ar, آغا خان; also transliterated as ''Aqa Khan'' and ''Agha Khan'') is a title held by the Imām of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias. Since 1957, the holder of the title has been the 49th Imām, Prince Shah Karim ...
, before falling in love with Timothy Leary
Timothy Francis Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) was an American psychologist and author known for his strong advocacy of psychedelic drugs. Evaluations of Leary are polarized, ranging from bold oracle to publicity hound. He was "a her ...
in 1972.
Although they were never legally married, ''Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary'' describes Harcourt-Smith's experiences as Timothy Leary's "common-law wife
Common-law marriage, also known as non-ceremonial marriage, marriage, informal marriage, or marriage by habit and repute, is a legal framework where a couple may be considered married without having formally registered their relation as a civil ...
" between 1972 and 1977, a period that spanned the divide between his fourth and fifth marriages. They met while he was a fugitive in Europe, and from there the pair traveled to Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
together. He was arrested in Afghanistan and the couple was extradited to California. While in the U.S., Harcourt-Smith advocated for Leary's release during his four-year imprisonment. Following his release they entered the Witness Protection Program
Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after a trial, usually by police. While a witness may only require p ...
.[
''My Psychedelic Love Story'', a documentary by acclaimed American writer, filmmaker and director ]Errol Morris
Errol Mark Morris (born February 5, 1948) is an American film director known for documentaries that interrogate the epistemology of its subjects. In 2003, his documentary film '' The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara ...
based on Harcourt-Smith's book, was released on Showtime on 29 November 2020.
On her weekly podcast
Future Primitive
Harcourt-Smith did and archived almost 700 interviews, from 2006 thru 2020. The interviews focused on preserving oral traditions and uniting emergent communities for a future that honors the planet.
Personal life
She was the granddaughter of Sir Cecil Harcourt-Smith and the stepdaughter of financier Árpád Plesch,Prince Rainier
Rainier III (Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi; 31 May 1923 – 6 April 2005) was Prince of Monaco from 1949 to his death in 2005. Rainier ruled the Principality of Monaco for almost 56 years, making him one of the longest-ruling m ...
and Princess Grace
Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982) was an American actress who, after starring in several significant films in the early to mid-1950s, became Princess of Monaco by marrying Prince Rainier III in April 1956.
Kelly ...
of Monaco
Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...
, and actor William Holden
William Holden (born William Franklin Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor, and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. Holden won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film ''Stalag 17'' (1953) ...
. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1971 she married John d'Amécourt and later divorced.[
She had 3 children, Lara Tambacopoulou, Alexis d'Amecourt, and Marlon Gobel.][
Harcourt-Smith spoke five languages, speaking three very well and two well enough to build relationships.][
She died on 11 October 2020 at the age of 74, at her home in ]Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...
[ surrounded by her children, grandchildren and her partner, Jose Luis Gomez Soler.][
]
References
External links
Future Primitive
Acid Queen on Reality Sandwich
- Excerpt from ''Tripping the Bardo with Timothy Leary: My Psychedelic Love Story''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harcourt-Smith, Joanna
1946 births
2020 deaths
Swiss women writers
Writers from Santa Fe, New Mexico
Women podcasters
Timothy Leary