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.