Ken Kesey Biography and List of Works

American writer, who gained world fame with his iconoclastic novel ONE FLEW OVER CUCKOO'S NEST (1962, filmed 1975). Kesey became in the 1960s a counterculture hero and a guru of psychedelic drugs with Timothy Leary. Kesey has been called the man who changed the beat generation into the hippie movement.

"I think McMurphy knew better than we did that our tough looks were all show, because he still wasn't able to get a real laugh out of anybody. Maybe he couldn't understand why we weren't able to laugh yet, but he knew you can't really be strong until you see a funny side to things. In fact, he worked so hard at pointing out the funny side of things that I was wondering a little if maybe he was blind to the other side, if maybe he wasn't able to see what it was that parched laughter deep inside your stomach."
(from One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest)

Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and brought up in Eugene, Oregon, where his father had a creamery business. He studied at the University of Oregon and on graduating he won a scholarship to Stanford University. Kesey soon dropped out and joined the counterculture movement. In 1956 he married his high school sweetheart, Faye Haxby. He began experimenting with drugs and wrote an unpublished novel, ZOO. Tom Wolfe described in his book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968) Kesey's and his friends, called the Merry Pranksters, journeys in their Day-Glo-painted bus and tripping on hallucinogenic drugs.

At a Veterans Administration hospital in Menlo Park, California, Kesey was a paid volunteer experimental subject, taking mind-altering drugs and reporting their effects. These experiences as an aide at a psychiatric hospital and LSD sessions formed the background for One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest, which was set in a mental hospital. The story is narrated by an American Indian chief, called Big Chief. He lets people think he is a deaf mute. Into his world enters the petty criminal and prankster McMurphy with his efforts to change the bureaucratic system of a mental hospital. The mental ward is ruled by Big Nurse Ratched. McMurphy is an involuntary and anarchic patient and he encourages the others to rebel against the rules. He realizes that he is only a projection of all the inmates's expectations and becomes a victim of the oppressive system. The book reveals the dehumanising effects of the social conformity of the 1950s, suggesting that the really dangerous mental cases are those in positions of authority.

'My name is McMurphy, buddies. R.P. McMurphy, and I'm gambling fool.' He winks and sings a little piece of song: '"...and whenever I meet with a deck a cards I lays... my money... down."' and laughs again.
(from One Flew Over Cuckoo's Nest)

The film adaptation of the book gained a huge success. Kirk Douglas had bought the rights to Kesey's novel; he played the role of McMurphy on Broadway. When he failed to interest a studio in the project, he finally turned the package over to his son Michael. Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman refused the role of McMurphy before it was taken by Jack Nicholson. The film was made in one wing of the Oregon State Hospital. Several actual patients of the hospital played extras. The film won five Academy Awards, including best actor for Nicholson. Kesey was barely mentioned during the award ceremonies, and he made known his unhappiness with the film.

"This guy's a scamp who knows he's irresistible to women and, in reality, he expects Nurse Ratched to be seduced by him... This is his tragic flaw. This is why he ultimately fails. I discussed this with Louise - I discussed it only with her. That's what I felt was actually happening with that character. It was one long, unsuccessful seduction which the guy was so pathologically sure of."
(Jack Nicholson about McMurphy in Jack Nicholson, the Unauthorised Biography by Barbara & Scott Siegel, 1990)

Kesey's next novel, SOMETIMES A GREAT NOTION appeared two years later and was also adapted to the screen. The story was set in a logging community and centred on two brothers and their bitter rivalry in the family. Hank Stamper is a raw and aggressive man, and his nemesis is Draeger, a union official attempting to force local loggers into conformity. Hank's half-brother, the introspective Lee, chooses to retreat into intellectualism instead of action. After the work, Kesey gave up publishing novels. He formed a band of 'Merrie Pranksters', set up a commune in La Honda, California, bought an old school bus, and toured America and Mexico with his friends, among them Neal Cassidy, Kerouac's buddy and muse. Their weird exploits were later chronicled in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1973).

In 1965 Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana. He fled to Mexico, where he faked an unconvincing suicide and then returned to the United States, serving a five-month prison sentence at the San Mateo County Jail. In the early 1970s Kesey returned to writing and published KESEY'S GARAGE SALE (1973). His later works include children's book LITTLE TRICKER THE SQUIRREL MEETS BIG DOUBLE THE BEAR (19990) and SAILOR SONG (1992), a futuristic tale about an Alaskan fishing village and Hollywood film crew.

For further reading: The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe (1968); "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest": The Text and Criticism, ed. by C.J. Pratt (1977); Kesey, ed. by M. Strelow (1977); Ken Kesey by Barry H. Leeds (1981); The Art of Grit by M. Gilbert Porter (1982); Ken Kesey by Stephen L. Tanner (1983); One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Gilbert Porter (1989); On the Bus by Ken Babbs (1989); St. James Guide to Young Adult Writers, ed. by Tom Pendergast and Sara Pendergast (1999)

ONE FLEW OVERR CUCKOO'S NEST, (1962)