Walking on the Edge of the World: A Memoir of the Sixties and Beyond

Leonard, author of such bestsellers as Ultimate Athlete and The Transformation , has been at the center of the human potential movement, a term he coined. The story of his 17 years as a Look senior editor and his activities at the Esalen Institute has the makings of a dramatic look back at the '60s, a potential largely unfulfilled in this long-winded, euphoric memoir. Leonard covered the Berlin Wall, Robert Kennedy and historic civil rights protests for Look , but his account of how he conceived, researched and wrote his stories makes less than scintillating copy. On the psychological front, he describes his LSD trip and offers cameos of Gestalt guru Fritz Perls, Esalen founder Mike Murphy, dolphin scientist John Lilly, Marshall McLuhan, and psychologists Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and B. F. Skinner. But the critical detachment one might hope to find in a reassessment of New Age stirrings is missing. (Nov.)