Women have been experimenting with drugs since prehistoric times, and yet published accounts of their views on the drug experience have been too often presented in a sensationalized manner. Sometimes their quests have brought unexpected rewards, other times great suffering and misfortune, but the literary results are often profound. Culled from poems, memoirs, and novels, the dozens of selections presented here are by Billie Holiday, Anais Nin, Maya Angelou, Carrie Fisher, Sarah Bernhardt, Charlotte Brontë, Susan Sontag, and even Cleopatra.