The Paris Review? Are they kidding? Do they mention that in the early years the PR was Mathiesson's cover as a CIA agent and a lot of funding came from them, at least indirectly but with full knowledge? I'm not trying to knock it down - it's a fine publication. But that's just funny.
This is part of one of my favorite historical footnotes. There was theoretical debate between the US and USSR about which system fostered the flowering of culture, each side saying theirs was better not just for the economy and government, but under (capitalism / socialism) culture was better because of (the free market of ideas / state support) and so forth. So to have something to point to, the CIA just went out and covertly funded a bunch of cultural outlets. Make of it what you may that the government was secretly subsidizing these and just how capitalist that is or isn't...
Or a footnote to the footnote, Timothy Leary wound up friends with G Gordon Liddy of all people. Many years after they met when Liddy was an FBI agent in the raid on Leary's compound, Leary had faded as a countercultural figure and Liddy had done his time after Watergate. They were apparently chatting and Liddy asked "Tim, you know I always wondered. Were you working with the CIA? That had always been the rumor, but I thought to myself at the time 'you know if that's true it would really destroy any legitimacy he has with the left.' So Tim, is it true? Did you work with the CIA?"
To which Leary's reply was just "...well Gordon who did you expect me to work with? The KGB!?!"