Kesey, Ken Elton

▪ 2002

      American writer (b. Sept. 17, 1935, La Junta, Colo.—d. Nov. 10, 2001, Eugene, Ore.), became an icon of the counterculture with both his first book, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962), and his hippie lifestyle as he and a group of friends—the Merry Pranksters—made a cross-country school-bus trip, along the way staging LSD-inspired “happenings.” That trip, which helped bring the antiestablishment's antics into the public eye, was chronicled in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). While a student at the University of Oregon, Kesey performed in some student productions, and following graduation (1957) he did some acting in Hollywood. His chief interest was in writing, however, so he spent a year in the graduate program at Stanford University. In 1959 Kesey became a subject of mind-altering-drug experiments at a veterans hospital, and when the tests ended, he remained at the hospital as an orderly in the mental ward. These experiences gave him the basis for One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, which achieved both critical and popular acclaim. A stage version was produced on Broadway in 1963–64, and a film version was released in 1975; the movie won five Academy Awards, including best picture. To prepare for his next book, Sometimes a Great Notion (1964)—a saga about a logging family—Kesey returned to Oregon and worked as a logger. That book also was filmed (1971). Following his school-bus trip with the Merry Pranksters and some trouble with the law, Kesey returned once again to Oregon and settled on his farm. Over the next several years, he wrote short fiction, children's books, and magazine articles; published two collections of his writings, Kesey's Garage Sale (1973) and Demon Box (1986); founded (1973) and published an underground magazine, Spit in the Ocean; and taught writing at the University of Oregon. In 1992 Kesey published another major novel, Sailor Song, and in 1994, in collaboration with fellow Prankster Ken Babbs, he published his final novel, Last Go Round.

* * *