Missed this terrible story last week – apologies for my tardiness. Erik Davis reported at his excellent Tech Gnosis website that the library of the late Terence McKenna was destroyed in a fire two weeks ago, at the storage offices of the Esalen Institute:
Esalen lost little of their own archives, the vast bulk of their books, photos, audio and videotapes residing elsewhere. Unfortunately, the institute was also using the offices to store the amazing library of Terence McKenna, the visionary psychedelic bard who passed away in 2000. The plan was to eventually install the books at Esalen, a place that Terence loved but which is hardly associated with scholarly pursuit. That plan will never be realized.
Erik reports that among the destroyed items were personal papers and even a 1659 folio of Isaac Casaubon’s A True and Faithful Relation of what passed between Dr. John Dee and some spirits. Tragic.
