Ken Kesey at Top Ten Books

Ken Kesey (1935-2001)

Ken Elton Kesey was born to a family of Oregon dairy farmers on September 17, 1935. Active in sports and fraternities at the University of Oregon, he won the Fred Lowe sScholarship awarded to outstanding wrestlers. A year after marrying his high school sweetheart, Norma Faye Haxby, Ken Kesey graduated from the university in 1957. Mr. Kesey moved to Palo Alto, California after he was awarded a scholarship to Stanford University's graduate writing program. It was here that his normal, middle class upbringing took an unexpected road. He became a visionary, shaman, criminal, prankster and a bridge from the beat generation to the hippy culture of the 1960s.

In Palo Alto, Ken Kesey met a graduate psychology student who was participating in L.S.D. experiments at a veterans hospital. These L.S.D. experiments were sponsored by the C.I.A. and the U.S. Army. Mr. Kesey was probably first attracted by the $75 per session that the volunteer subjects were paid. Ken Kesey afterward brought this new found experience into the public realm at the fabled acid tests in and around La Honda, California. The acid tests were big parties with strobe lights, music and participants drinking L.S.D. laced Kool-Aid. These parties, along with other experimentation in New York by Harvard University professor Timothy Leary, were the starting point of a cultural revolution. Psychedelic art, drug experimentation, 1960's intellectualism as well as music by acid rock groups such as the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane had roots in the Kesey acid tests. Mr. Kesey's acid tests were for everyman while Dr. Leary's experiments attracted a more intellectual crowd.

In 1964, Ken Kesey took his famous transcontinental bus trip. He brought with him an experienced driver and cross country traveler, Neal Cassidy. Neil Cassidy was perhaps better known as the Dean Moriarity character from Jack Kerouac's book "On the Road". Mr. Kesey was also accompanied by the "Merry Pranksters", an entourage of like minded friends; proto-hippies who shared a commune in La Honda. Their means of conveyance was a Day-Glo 1939 International Harvester bus christened "Furthur". "Furthur" was wired for light and sound.

Tom Wolfe documented these activities in his book "The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test". The purpose for the Merry Prankster cross country adventure was to visit the New York World's Fair, but did include a side trip to the Hudson Valley where Dr. Leary was with his group. Apparently Dr. Leary didn't feel that this rabble from the west coast were deserving of his enlightenment and made himself unavailable to the travelers.

While in California, Ken Kesey found time to pen two novels. His first published novel in 1962 was entitled "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest". Mr. Kesey wrote the book while working as a night attendant in a hospital psychiatric ward. He told the story of the conflict ridden relationship between Randall McMurphy, a convict/con man who thought that serving time would be easier in a psychiatric hospital, and Miss Ratched, a by-the-book, no nonsense nurse. It was a huge success, but the novel may have over shadowed his later works. Kirk Douglas bought the stage and screen rights to the book and starred on Broadway in the title role, Randall McMurphy. The play was revived in 1970 with William Devane in the title role. In 2001, the play was again performed with Gary Sinise playing Randall. In 1975, a movie was released with Jack Nicholson playing the starring role. The film was extremely successful with Nicholson winning an Oscar for Best Actor, Milos Foreman for Best Director, a Best Actress award for Louise Fletcher and best screen adaptation for Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman. Ken Kesey was unhappy with the production and disapproved of the script. He sued the producers Michael Douglas and Saul Zaentz, later agreeing to a settlement. Mr. Kesey refused to ever watch the movie. Ken Kesey's second novel, "Sometimes a Great Notion", was also made into a movie starring Paul Newman, Henry Fonda and Lee Remick. Neither the book or the movie, which was later renamed "Never Give an Inch", was as great a success as "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest".

Ken Kesey settled down in Pleasant Valley, Oregon with his wife and children to farm and write. Mr. Kesey coached local wrestling teams and taught a graduate writing course at the University of Oregon.

Ken Kesey on DVD

Ken Kesey

Kesey's Jail Journal by Ken Kesey - Four years after the legendary 1964 bus trip immortalized in Tom Wolfe's Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Ken Kesey began serving time in San Mateo County Jail for pot possession. Transferred to an experimental low-security "honor camp" in the redwood forest, he spent six months clearing brush and immersing himself in the life of the jail community, attempting to "bring light and color" to it. "This is crazier here than the nuthouse ever was," Kesey noted, and proceeded to record the scene in numerous notebooks, illustrated with intense and brilliantly colored artwork. Upon returning to Oregon, Kesey turned the raw notebook material into an illustrated collage that stretched across dozens of 18" x 23" boards. Upon realizing that publication of the elaborate, handwritten book was more than his publisher was willing to attempt, he put it aside. Almost thirty years later he returned to the project and brought it to completion during the final years of his life. Fans of Ken Kesey's singular American voice will rejoice to hear it again in this unique and long-overdue volume. Those unfamiliar with Kesey's artwork are in for a revelation. List Price: $34.95 Our Price: $17.80 More Info!

Spit in the Ocean, No. 7: All About Ken Kesey - Between 1974 and 1981 Ken Kesey self-published six issues of a literary magazine called Spit in the Ocean. After the revolutionary novelist's death in the fall of 2001, one of his closest friends, acclaimed writer Ed McClanahan, decided to carry out Kesey's vision and put together a final issue of Spit as a tribute to Kesey's genius and imperturbable spirit. Featuring contributions from cultural luminaries-including Robert Stone, Paul Krassner, Wendell Berry, Bill Walton, and Grateful Dead lyricists Robert Hunter and John Perry Barlow-as well as "regular folk," and several pieces by Kesey himself, Spit in the Ocean #7 is a loving and fitting homage to the gigantic and unique spirit of the merriest of the Merry Pranksters. List Price: $15.00 Our Price: $1.55 More Info!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Penguin Classics) by Ken Kesey - Boisterous, ribald, and ultimately shattering, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the seminal novel of the 1960s that has left an indelible mark on the literature of our time. Here is the unforgettable story of a mental ward and its inhabitants, especially the tyrannical Big Nurse Ratched and Randle Patrick McMurphy, the brawling, fun-loving new inmate who resolves to oppose her. We see the struggle through the eyes of Chief Bromden, the seemingly mute half-Indian patient who witnesses and understands McMurphy's heroic attempt to do battle with the awesome powers that keep them all imprisoned. With a Preface and Illustrations by the author Introduction by Robert Faggan List Price: $15.00 Our Price: $8.69 More Info!

The Further Inquiry by Ken Kesey - List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $7.97 More Info!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: (Great Books edition) (Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century) by Ken Kesey - These deluxe editions are packaged with French flaps, acid-free paper, and rough front. "A glittering parable of good and evil . . . a work of genuine literary merit."--The New York Times Other Penguin Great Books of the 20th Century: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce Swann's Way by Marcel Proust My Antonia by Willa Cather On the Road by Jack Kerouac White Noise by Don DeLillo List Price: $16.00 Our Price: $9.07 More Info!

On the Bus: The Complete Guide to the Legendary Trip of Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and the Birth of the Counterculture by Paul Perry - The setting is the 1960s with the Psychedelic Revolution as the backdrop. Twenty youths crossed America in a psychedelically painted school bus for an entire month. This legendary trip's 25th anniversary is a rare document of a nation in transition. 16 color, 75 black-and-white photos. List Price: $22.95 Our Price: $150.98 More Info!

Kesey's Garage Sale by Ken Kesey - List Price: $5.95 More Info!

Sometimes a Great Notion (Penguin Classics) by Ken Kesey - The magnificent second novel from the legendary author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest Following the astonishing success of his first novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey wrote what Charles Bowden calls "one of the few essential books written by an American in the last half century." This wild-spirited tale tells of a bitter strike that rages through a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers. Out of the Stamper family’s rivalries and betrayals Ken Kesey has crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy. List Price: $17.00 Our Price: $8.98 More Info!

Demon Box by Ken Kesey - In this collection of short stories, Ken Kesey challenges public and private demons with a wrestler's brave and deceptive embrace, making it clear that the energy of madness must live on. List Price: $18.00 Our Price: $6.87 More Info!

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Sparknotes) by Ken Kesey - "SparkNotes Literature Guides" is an invaluable series tackling some of the most important novels ever written and studied. Created by Harvard students for students everywhere, these indispensable study aids are thorough and informative. They feature explanations of key themes, motifs, and symbols, detailed analyses of major characters and important quotes, plot summaries and analysis, an exploration of historical context, plus key facts and potential essay topics - everything a student needs to be thoroughly prepared! List Price: $5.95 Our Price: $2.45 More Info!