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Nov 11, 2001 · Ken Kesey, the Pied Piper of the psychedelic era, who was best known as the author of the novel ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' died yesterday in a hospital in Eugene, Ore., said his wife,...
- Early Life
- Success and Rebellion
- The Merry Pranksters
- The Acid Tests
- Sources
Ken Kesey was born September 17, 1935, in La Junta, Colorado. His parents were farmers, and after his father served in World War II, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. Growing up, Kesey spent much of his time in the outdoors, fishing, hunting, and camping with his father and brothers. He also became involved in sports, especially high school ...
While working a part-time job as an attendant in a mental ward, Kesey was inspired to write what became his breakthrough novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, published in 1962. One night, while taking peyote and observing patients in the mental ward, Kesey conceived the story of the inmates in a prison mental hospital. The narrator of his novel,...
By 1964 he had gathered a collection of eccentric friends, dubbed the Merry Pranksters, who experimented with psychedelic drugs and multi-media art projects. That year, Kesey and the Pranksters traveled across America, from the West Coast to New York City, on a garishly painted converted school bus they named "Further." (The name was originally mis...
Back on the West Coast in 1965, Kesey and the Pranksters organized a series of parties they called The Acid Tests. The events featured the ingestion of LSD, bizarre films and slide shows, and free-form rock music by a local band, which soon began calling itself the Grateful Dead. The events became notorious, as did a party at Kesey's ranch in La Ho...
Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher. "Ken Kesey, Author of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66." New York Times, 11 November 2001, p. 46."Kesey, Ken." Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of American Literature, vol. 2, Gale, 2009, pp. 878-881. Gale Virtual Reference Library."Kesey, Ken." The Sixties in America Reference Library, edited by Sara Pendergast and Tom Pendergast, vol. 2: Biographies, UXL, 2005, pp. 118-126. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his stint working at the Veterans' Administration hospital, inspired One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Nov 11, 2001 · Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and an icon of Sixties counter-culture, died yesterday at the age of 66. He had been suffering from liver cancer.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a novel by Ken Kesey published in 1962. Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of institutional processes and the human mind, including a critique of psychiatry [3] and a tribute to individualistic principles.
- Ken Kesey, John Clark Pratt
- 1962
Feb 1, 2012 · The classic American novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest has hit the half-century mark. It made its author, Ken Kesey, a literary celebrity — and helped alter perceptions of...
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The precision and evocativeness of the images in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and the celebration of physical vitality in the fishing expedition of Part III bear the stamp of...
