High Times

High Times is identified in the diary as a magazine whose connections with Andy Warhol’s circle included both a social encounter and a Christmas-cover photo session. The surviving references do not describe its editorial structure or wider activities, but they show it entering Warhol’s world through people and images: first through Toni, whom he had met through the magazine, and later through a cover assignment at The Factory with Truman Capote.

A Connection Through Toni

Warhol’s diary identifies Toni as a woman he had met through High Times. On one occasion, she and her girlfriend Carole were to collect him in a limousine at 8:30; they did not arrive until 10, and Brigid Berlin joined the outing as well. Warhol wanted to tape the women and see whether he could make a play from the material. The episode records a personal connection to someone associated with the magazine and, at the same time, Warhol’s habit of treating social encounters as possible creative material.

The Christmas-Cover Session

On September 26, 1978, Truman Capote came to The Factory for a High Times Christmas-cover photograph featuring him and Warhol. Capote arrived before the scheduled time, at 2:30. The session was arranged amid the Factory’s ongoing work: Bob MacBride urinated on one of Warhol’s Piss Paintings to see whether its colors would change, while Capote spoke with Brigid Berlin about a drying-out facility. Toni arrived four hours late, bringing a Santa costume for Warhol and a little-girl outfit for Capote.

A Disrupted Image-Making Occasion

Capote was not in the mood to dress in drag, and refused the outfit. He was also very drunk, embracing people and pleading with Brigid Berlin for a drink after she had caught him drinking in the kitchen. These circumstances made the cover assignment less a controlled studio portrait than an occasion shaped by delay, costume, and Capote’s condition. The diary documents the planned image and the scene around it, but does not say how the photograph ultimately looked or whether the shoot was completed as intended.

High Times in Warhol’s Magazine World

The assignment placed High Times among the publications seeking Warhol’s participation in celebrity photography. His own magazine, Interview, had become a major source of activity for him: by 1976, its growing circulation and glamorous reputation brought a steady stream of people to the office, and the promise of appearing in it had replaced the promise of appearing in one of his films. The High Times cover session was a separate project, but it likewise drew on Warhol’s public image and his proximity to recognizable figures. Together, these references show the magazine’s presence in his orbit through a contributor and a specific cover commission, without establishing a broader institutional relationship.