Ken Kesey

Ken Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American author, probably best known for his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and as a cultural icon who some consider a link between the "beat generation" of the 1950s and the "hippies" of the 1960s.

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September 17 - 1935 - November 10 - 2001 - American - Author - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Beat generation - 1950s - Hippie - 1960s

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Born in La Junta, Colorado, he spent much of his youth in the Pacific Northwest. There he married Faye Haxby, with whom he had three children, Jed, Zane and Shannon. He attended the University of Oregon, where he received a degree in speech and communication and was an Olympic-caliber wrestler. He was awarded a Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship in 1958; he moved to Palo Alto, California to enroll in the creative writing program at Stanford University.

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La Junta, Colorado - Pacific Northwest - University of Oregon - Olympic - Wrestler - Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship - 1958 - Palo Alto, California - Stanford University

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At Stanford in 1959, he volunteered to take part in a study at the Menlo Park Veterans Hospital on the effects of psychoactive drugs such as LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, and IT-290 (AMT). (The study in mind control was almost certainly sponsored by the CIA. See also Project MKULTRA.) Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the study and in years of private experimentation which followed. His role as a medical guinea pig inspired Kesey to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which caught the attention of many, including "beat" icon Neal Cassady, who had accompanied Jack Kerouac on the trip described in Kerouac's On the Road.

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1959 - Menlo Park - Psychoactive drugs - LSD - Psilocybin - Mescaline - IT-290 (AMT) - Mind control - CIA - Project MKULTRA - Guinea pig - Neal Cassady - Jack Kerouac - On the Road

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With the commercial success of his first novel in 1962, Kesey moved to La Honda, in the mountains outside of San Francisco. He frequently entertained friends with parties he called "Acid Tests" involving music (such as Kesey's favorite band, The Warlocks, later known as the Grateful Dead), black lights, fluorescent paint, strobes, and other "psychedelic" effects, and of course LSD (often slipped surreptitiously into a punch).

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1962 - La Honda - San Francisco - Grateful Dead - Black light - Strobes - Psychedelic

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When the publication of his second novel Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964 required his presence in New York, Kesey, Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the "Merry Pranksters" took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Furthur. This trip, described in Tom Wolfe's book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's own screenplay "The Further Inquiry") was the group's attempt at making art out of everyday life. In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Kerouac and to Allen Ginsberg, who in turn introduced them to Timothy Leary.

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Sometimes a Great Notion - Merry Pranksters - Furthur - Tom Wolfe - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test - Allen Ginsberg - Timothy Leary

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After Kesey was arrested for having marijuana on his person he decided it would be better to flee to Mexico than go to jail. They renamed their bus Furthur in an intentionally feeble attempt at disguise. When the bus returned to the U.S. for an Acid Test Graduation, Kesey was finally sent to jail for the prior charges.

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After his release from jail, he moved with his family back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon in the Willamette Valley, where he was to spend the rest of his life. He wrote many articles, smaller books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time.

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Pleasant Hill, Oregon - Willamette Valley

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