[32], When the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964, required his presence in New York, Kesey, Neal Cassady, and others in a group of friends they called the Merry Pranksters took a cross-country trip in a school bus nicknamed Furthur. "Ken Kesey, Author of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66". Burroughs. Two years after writing Cuckoo’s Nest, Kesey penned his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, as well as embarking on a legendary, cross-country venture with an ensemble of friends and family, the Merry Pranksters, in a day-glo covered, converted 1939 International Harvester school bus, the Furthur, equipped with LSD-laced Kool-Aid. [24] The project studied the effects of psychedelic drugs, particularly LSD, psilocybin, mescaline, cocaine, aMT, and DMT on people. He claimed never to have seen the movie because of a dispute over the $20,000 he was initially paid for the film rights. Writer, Sixties counterculture figure succumbs to liver cancer at sixty-six. "[22], At the invitation of Perry Lane neighbor and Stanford psychology graduate student Vic Lovell, Kesey volunteered to take part in what turned out to be a CIA-financed study under the aegis of Project MKULTRA, a highly secret military program, at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital[23] where he worked as a night aide. [21] While under the tutelage of Cowley, he began to draft and workshop a manuscript that evolved into One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Kesey was born on September 17, 1935, in La Junta, Colorado, and in 1946 he and his family moved to Springfield, Oregon. American author Ken Kesey, who wrote the classic novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and whose exploits spawned the hippie movement, has died. F lush with funds from the success of his debut novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ken Kesey, then 29, drew up plans in 1963 to drive a bus … Kesey was outspoken in his dislike of the film and the choice of Nicholson to portray the story’s protagonist, Randall P. McMurphy. Sign up for our newsletter. [2] According to Kesey, "Without Faye, I would have been swept overboard by notoriety and weird, dope-fueled ideas and flower-child girls with beamy eyes and bulbous breasts. Ken Kesey, the Pied Piper of the psychedelic era, who was best known as the author of the novel ''One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest,'' died yesterday in a hospital in Eugene, Ore., said his wife, Faye. … Ruth Kelley. [43] Ken Kesey donated $33,395 towards the purchase of a proper bus for the school's wrestling team to replace the van that fell off a cliff. We want to hear from you! "All his life," wrote novelist Robert Stone in the New Yorker , "he was searching for the philosopher's stone that could return the world to the pure story from which it … Ken Kesey's writing, especially One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, reads like an acid trip that's lasted just a bit too long. Kesey was also a part of the Church of the SubGenius. “Namely to treat others with kindness and if anyone does you dirt forgive that person right away. [53], American novelist, writer, and countercultural figure, Macdonald, Gina, and Andrew Macdonald. Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. In 1994, he toured with members of the Merry Pranksters, performing a musical play he wrote about the millennium called Twister: A Ritual Reality. Increasingly disengaged by the playwriting and screenwriting courses that comprised much of his major, he began to take literature classes in the second half of his collegiate career with James B. A singer and a waitress at a San Francisco bar, Ruth Kelley was unknowingly given LSD … Ken Kesey assembled his Merry Pranksters and other kindred spirits for one more, and final, prank—a semi-regular book series that contained pieces of his unfinished novel about his beloved grandmother, and contributions from a who’s who of the counterculture. Done in by a bum liver. [2], During his initial fellowship year, Kesey frequently clashed with Center director Wallace Stegner, who regarded the young writer as "a sort of highly talented illiterate" and rejected Kesey's application for a departmental Stegner Fellowship before permitting his attendance as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow. His legacy will carry on furthur. Want more Rolling Stone? [40] He wrote many articles, books (mostly collections of his articles), and short stories during that time. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. Sometimes a Great Notion inspired a 1970 film starring and directed by Paul Newman; it was nominated for two Academy Awards, and in 1972 was the first film shown by the new television network HBO,[35] in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.[36]. He almost qualified to be on the Olympic team, but a serious shoulder injury stopped his wrestling career. Ken Kesey: One Who Wigged Out "His buddies are LSD cultists, Hell's Angels, peace marchers, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac hangers-on, a bookshop owner, a … In New York, Cassady introduced Kesey to Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who then turned them on to Timothy Leary. After his release from prison where he sat for marijuana possession, Ken Kesey went to his farm in pleasant hill in the Willamette valley. October 1 1979 KEN KESEY Greg Scott The Day After Superman Died KEN KESEY October 1 1979. I had finally found where the blame must be laid: that the money we are spending for national defense is not defending us from the villains real and near, the awful villains of ignorance, and cancer, and heart disease and highway death. [45], Kesey mainly kept to his home life in Pleasant Hill, preferring to make artistic contributions on the Internet[46] or holding ritualistic revivals in the spirit of the Acid Test. In 1984, Kesey's 20-year-old son Jed, a wrestler for the University of Oregon, suffered severe head injuries on the way to a tournament when the team's van crashed after sliding off the highway. In an attempt to mislead police, he faked suicide by having friends leave his truck on a cliffside road near Eureka, along with an elaborate suicide note, written by the Pranksters. Advertisement. Born in 1966, Sunshine was raised by Adams and her stepfather, Jerry Garcia. In the official Grateful Dead DVD release The Closing of Winterland (2003) documenting the monumental New Year's 1978/1979 concert at the Winterland Arena in San Francisco, Kesey is featured in a between-set interview. Eugene, OR. His second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion—an epic account of the vicissitudes of an Oregon logging family that aspired to the modernist grandeur of William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha saga—was a commercial success that polarized critics and readers upon its release in 1964, although Kesey regarded the novel as his magnum opus.[4]. [2], The film Gerry (2002) is dedicated to Ken Kesey.[52]. Kesey fled to Mexico in the back of a friend's car. Here is all you want to know, and more! Kesey was a champion wrestler in high school and college in the 174-pound weight division. Web. [51], In 1997, health problems began to weaken Kesey, starting with a stroke that year. In 1964, author Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters set off on a road trip in a modified school bus they dubbed 'Furthur' -- and laid the foundation for the counterculture, the Summer of Love, and the Woodstock phenomenon. Nevertheless, Kesey received the prestigious $2,000 Harper-Saxton Prize for his first novel in progress (the oft-rejected Zoo) and audited the graduate writing seminar—a courtesy nominally accorded to former Stegner Fellows, although Kesey only secured his place by falsely claiming to Scowcroft that his colleague (on sabbatical through 1960) "had said that he could attend classes for free"—through the 1960–61 term. Levon"—he continued to regularly contribute fiction and reportage to such publications as Esquire, Rolling Stone, Oui, Running, and The Whole Earth Catalog; various iterations of these pieces were collected in Kesey's Garage Sale (1973) and Demon Box (1986). After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon's School of Journalism in 1957, Kesey attended Stanford University's creative writing program under the tutelage of acclaimed historian, novelist, and short st… Published under the guidance of Cowley in 1962, the novel was an immediate success; in 1963, it was adapted into a successful stage play by Dale Wasserman, and in 1975, Miloš Forman directed a screen adaptation, which won the "Big Five" Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Actor (Jack Nicholson), Best Actress (Louise Fletcher), Best Director (Forman) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman). Hall, a cosmopolitan alumnus of the Iowa Writers' Workshop who had previously taught at Cornell University and later served as provost of College V at the University of California, Santa Cruz. [44], Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992. How many school buses could be outfitted with seatbelts with the money spent for one of those 16-inch shells? Kenneth Elton Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure. He wrote to Senator Mark Hatfield: .mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, And I began to get mad, Senator. His role as a Sixties counter culture figure was secured with the 1962 publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a popular novel based on his work at a California veteran’s hospital. He was 66 years old. [13] Two days later, he was declared brain dead and his parents gave permission for his organs to be donated. [19] The course was initially taught that year by Viking Press editorial consultant and Lost Generation eminence grise Malcolm Cowley, who was "always glad to see" Kesey and fellow auditor Tillie Olsen. Kesey’s death came just two weeks after he underwent surgery to remove nearly half of his cancerous liver. Straight. Kesey continued to write through the Seventies and Eighties, but Sometimes a Great Notion marked the beginning of a twenty-eight year hiatus from writing novels, which ended in 1992 with the publication of Sailor Song. Following the publication of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, he moved to nearby La Honda, California, and began hosting happenings with former colleagues from Stanford, miscellaneous bohemian and literary figures (most notably Neal Cassady), and other friends collectively known as the Merry Pranksters; these parties, known as Acid Tests, integrated the consumption of LSD with multimedia performances. Question: Did the FBI work with Ken Kesey? On January 17, 1966, Kesey was sentenced to six months to be served at the San Mateo County jail in Redwood City, California. "[19] According to Stone, Stegner "saw Kesey... as a threat to civilization and intellectualism and sobriety" and continued to reject Kesey's Stegner Fellowship applications for the 1959–60 and 1960–61 terms.[20]. Left the family farm kizi only twice in the 90-ies of meetings with former associates in the commune of «the Merry pranksters». Cowley was succeeded the following quarter by the Irish short-story specialist Frank O'Connor; frequent spats between O'Connor and Kesey ultimately precipitated his departure from the class. FICTION. This is a selected list of Kesey's better-known works. Kesey and the Pranksters appeared onstage with the band and performed a dance-trance-jam session involving several characters from The Wizard of Oz and Frankenstein. "[1] A huge amount of footage was filmed on 16 mm cameras during the trip, which remained largely unseen until the release of Alex Gibney and Alison Elwood's film Magic Trip in 2011. Certainly, he did use drugs and the fact is well reflected in his work as well as in his life story. ... Kesey died in 2001 after surgery to remove a tumor from his liver. Kesey loathed that, unlike the book, the film was not narrated by the Chief Bromden character, and he disagreed with Jack Nicholson's being cast as Randle McMurphy (he wanted Gene Hackman). [5][6] After a third novel (Sailor Song) was released to lukewarm reviews in 1992, he reunited with the Merry Pranksters and began publishing works on the Internet until ill health (including a stroke) curtailed his activities. In 1946 the family moved to Springfield, Oregon, where Kesey spent several years on his family's farm. The bus was something of a roving cultural definition, as Neal Cassady, who had inspired the protagonist of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road was behind the wheel, and their adventure sparked another defining book of the age Tom Wolfe’s The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. When did Ken Kesey die? Shortly thereafter, he returned home to the Willamette Valley and settled in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, where he maintained a secluded, family-oriented lifestyle for the rest of his life. Where is Ken Kesey from? He mentored the Grateful Dead (the de facto "house band" of the Acid Tests) throughout their incipience and continued to exert a profound influence upon the group throughout their long career. Kesey suffered a mild stroke in 1997. In a recorded message on Kesey's office phone, Ken Babbs said: "Ken Kesey, a great husband, father, granddad and friend. "Ken Kesey.". [33] This trip, described in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (and later in Kesey's unproduced screenplay, The Furthur Inquiry) was the group's attempt to create art out of everyday life, and to experience roadway America while high on LSD. [2] On October 25, 2001, Kesey had surgery on his liver to remove a tumor. [citation needed], After the bus trip, the Pranksters threw parties they called Acid Tests around the San Francisco Bay Area from 1965 to 1966. [49][50] His last major work was an essay for Rolling Stone magazine calling for peace in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. The novelist Ken Kesey died at the age of 66. Photo Credit Kesey began working on his novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1960 after he had successfully completed his graduate fellowship program in creative writing, undertaken at Stanford University. The new documentary Magic Trip follows the late Ken Kesey and the Merry Band of Pranksters as they criss-crossed across the United States during the tumultuous 1960s. If people could just understand it is possible to be different without being a threat. [29][30], The inspiration for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest came while working on the night shift with Gordon Lish at the Menlo Park Veterans' Hospital. [7], Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, to dairy farmers Geneva (née Smith) and Frederick A. In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. 2010. He was 66 years old. [26][27] Other firsthand accounts of the Acid Tests appear in Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs by Hunter S. Thompson and the 1967 Hells Angels memoir Freewheelin Frank:, Secretary of the Angels (Frank Reynolds; ghostwritten by Michael McClure). [28], During his Woodrow Wilson Fellowship year, Kesey wrote Zoo, a novel about the beatniks living in the North Beach community of San Francisco, but it was never published. As documented in Tom Wolfe's 'Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,' Kesey and his crew experimented with LSD all over the country and thumbed their noses at convention; Neal … A statue of Ken Kesey in Eugene, Oregon. He had told Carolyn shortly before his death that he was tired of playing the fool (the Holy Fool or Goof, the role that Kerouac had immortalized him in for … While studying and working in the Stanford milieu over the next five years, most of them spent as a resident of Perry Lane (a historically bohemian enclave adjacent to the university golf course), he developed intimate lifelong friendships with fellow writers Ken Babbs, Larry McMurtry, Wendell Berry, Ed McClanahan, Gurney Norman, and Robert Stone. [2] He did not recover from that operation and died of complications on November 10, 2001, at age 66. The celebrated king of counter-culture died in an Oregon hospital following an operation for liver cancer. The Day After Superman Died. His family relocated to Oregon when he was a child. He was 66. Cancer - Liver. [18] Because he lacked the prerequisites to work toward a traditional master's degree in English as a communications major, Kesey elected to enroll in the non-degree program at Stanford University's Creative Writing Center that fall. Unbeknownst to Kesey, who applied at Hall's request, the maverick literary critic Leslie Fiedler (then based at the University of Montana) successfully importuned the regional fellowship committee to select the "rough-hewn" Kesey alongside more traditional fellows from Reed College and other elite institutions. in speech and communication in 1957. Kesey’s death came just two weeks after he … The writer was already very sick. Reinforcing these perceptions, Stegner's deputy Richard Scowcroft later recalled that "neither Wally nor I thought he had a particularly important talent. © Copyright 2021 Rolling Stone, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media, LLC. [citation needed], Kesey's role as a medical guinea pig, as well as his stint working at the Veterans' Administration hospital, inspired him to write One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He was a key member of the psychedelic literary collective known as the Merry Pranksters. Ken Kesey facts He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957 In 1957, Kesey was second in his weight class at the Pacific Coast intercollegiate competition. “A great good friend and great husband and father and grand dad, he will be sorely missed but if there is one thing he would want us to do it would be to carry on his life’s work,” Kesey’s friend and fellow Prankster, Ken Babbs wrote. But we found as we went along it got easier to make contact with people. Ken Kesey. [34] In an interview after arriving in New York, Kesey is quoted as saying, "The sense of communication in this country has damn near atrophied. Kesey, the author of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, died on 10 November 2001, aged 66, after complications following surgery to remove a liver tumour. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953. In addition to teaching at the University of Oregon—an experience that culminated in Caverns (1989), a collaborative novel written by Kesey and his graduate workshop students under the pseudonym of "O.U. Novelist and counterculture icon Ken Kesey died on November 10th in Eugene, Oregon; he was sixty-six. He was raised in a religious household where he developed a great appreciation for Christian fables and a … He was 66. Ken Kesey, the late author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, in California in 1984. During this period, Kesey participated in government studies involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD) to supplement his income.[3]. [16] Hall took on Kesey as his protege and cultivated his interest in literary fiction, introducing Kesey (whose reading interests were hitherto confined to science fiction) to the works of Ernest Hemingway and other paragons of literary modernism. [11], Kesey had a football scholarship for his first year, but switched to the University of Oregon wrestling team as a better fit for his build. [citation needed], While still enrolled at the University of Oregon in 1957, Kesey wrote End of Autumn; according to Rick Dogson, the novel "focused on the exploitation of college athletes by telling the tale of a football lineman who was having second thoughts about the game. Ken Kesey in Cuckoo's Nest writes of his sympathies for people who are conveniently labled mentally ill by the system. The day after he died was an extraordinary day in the life of the author. The last time Ken Kesey appeared in public in 1997. American. Kesey Square is located in downtown Eugene, Oregon. There, Kesey often spent time talking to the patients, sometimes under the influence of the hallucinogenic drugs he had volunteered to experiment with. [10] Additionally, with the approval of Faye Kesey, Ken fathered a daughter, Sunshine Kesey, with fellow Merry Prankster Carolyn "Mountain Girl" Adams. Neal Cassady was an extraordinary man. Four years later, on November 10, 2001, Kesey died of liver cancer in Eugene, Oregon, at the age of 66. He was taken to the closest hospital, where he died a few hours later. [47], On August 14, 1997, Kesey and his Pranksters attended a Phish concert in Darien Lake, New York. Novelist and counterculture icon Ken Kesey died on November 10th in Eugene, Oregon; he was sixty-six. Reflecting upon this period in a 1999 interview with Robert K. Elder, Kesey recalled, "I was too young to be a beatnik, and too old to be a hippie. And in 2001, Kesey suff… He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 following the completion of a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. It was transformed into an even more popular film starring Jack Nicholson twelve years later. He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953. Right down to the bone.”. Send us a tip using our anonymous form. He has diabetes, later was diagnosed with cancer of the liver. The “last note” the eccentric novelist Ken Kesey ever wrote was “Ocean, Ocean I’ll beat you in the end.” While this may be the tip of the iceberg for Ken Kesey, author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it’s still a worthy mention from his many psychedelic escapades and misadventures. Biography - A Short Wiki. These parties were described in some of Allen Ginsberg's poems and served as the basis for Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, an early exemplar of the nonfiction novel. [8], In 1956, while attending the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication in neighboring Eugene, Oregon, Kesey eloped with his high-school sweetheart, Oregon State College student Norma "Faye" Haxby, whom he had met in seventh grade. He did coke the way some people drink the stuff, and romanced heroin to the end. Many of the Pranksters lived at Kesey's residence in La Honda. Is Ken Kesey gay or straight? ", "Ken Kesey, Author of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66", "11 Authors Who Hated the Movie Versions of Their Books", "National Museum of American History Collections: Signboard, Pass the Acid Test", "Ken Kesey Merry Pranksters collection, (bulk 1964–1969)", "HBO celebrates forty years of sex, violence and... Fraggles", "Local History: NEPA put HBO on the dial", "Ken Kesey, novelist, arrested in Bay Area", "Merry pranksters Jambay trip back to San Diego beach", "Evergreen State College Archives: Student Affairs: Enrollment Services: Commencement Exercise : Commencement Speeches 1972–", "Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture", "Twister : a ritual reality in three-quarters plus overtime if necessary in SearchWorks catalog", Article on Ken Kesey lecture at Virginia Commonwealth University, Feb. 20, 1990, Ken Kesey On Misconceptions Of Counterculture, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ken_Kesey&oldid=1001327495, 20th-century American short story writers, Short description is different from Wikidata, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2017, Wikipedia articles with BIBSYS identifiers, Wikipedia articles with CINII identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SELIBR identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SNAC-ID identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Novelist, short story writer, essayist, poet, Peter Swirski, "You're Not in Canada until You Can Hear the Loons Crying; or, Voting, People's Power and Ken Kesey's, This page was last edited on 19 January 2021, at 06:02. After posting a .885 winning percentage in the 1956–57 season, he received the Fred Low Scholarship for outstanding Northwest wrestler. Ken Kesey, whose LSD-fueled bus ride became a symbol of the psychedelic 1960s after he won fame as a novelist with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," died Saturday. Why did Ken Kesey die? Where did Ken Kesey go to university? Kesey did not believe that these patients were insane, but rather that society had pushed them out because they did not fit the conventional ideas of how people were supposed to act and behave. Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, on September 17, 1935. Ken Kesey died of complications from liver surgery on November 10, 2001, leaving behind legions of mourning fans, and a world forever changed for the better because he had been in it. [2] Kesey wrote many detailed accounts of his experiences with these drugs, both during the study and in the years of private drug-use that followed. What is Ken Kesey's ethnicity? The younger Kesey, a member of the University of Oregon wrestling team, was the second wrestler to die as a result of the accident, which occurred when a … Ken Kesey died on November 10, 2001 after surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his liver. Ken Kesey, the older of two sons, was born on September 17, 1935, in La Junta, Colorado. White. [1][12][13] He remains "ranked in the top 10 of Oregon Wrestling's all time winning percentage."[14][15]. [38][39] On his release, he moved back to the family farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, in the Willamette Valley, where he spent the rest of his life. The procedure followed several years of ill health for Kesey, who was diagnosed as diabetic nearly a decade ago, and suffered a stroke in 1997. [2] Kesey was a champion wrestler in high school and college in the 174-pound weight division. The success of this book, as well as the demolition of the Perry Lane cabins in August 1963, allowed him to move to a log house at 7940 La Honda Road in La Honda, California, a rustic hamlet in the Santa Cruz Mountains fifteen miles to the west of the Stanford University campus. Kesey died in Eugene, Oregon, on November 10, 2001, from complications after liver cancer surgery. [42], At a Grateful Dead concert soon after the death of promoter Bill Graham, Kesey delivered a eulogy, mentioning that Graham had donated $1,000 toward a memorial to Jed atop Mount Pisgah, near the Kesey home in Pleasant Hill. [1] In 1946, the family moved to Springfield, Oregon. [48], In June 2001, Kesey was invited and accepted as the keynote speaker at the annual commencement of The Evergreen State College. Here the writer lived until the end of life. In both high school and at the University of Oregon, Kesey was a champion wrestler. Ken Kesey died in Eugene, Oregon, on November 10, 2001. His mother has given a … Kesey. Ken Kesey, of all the Beat writers, is probably the most well known for his drug use. [41], Jed's death deeply affected Kesey, who later called Jed a victim of policies that had starved the team of funding. He was in and out of hospitals and rehab centers; in 1986 he fell into a coma. "[28] Although Kesey came to regard the unpublished work as juvenilia, an excerpt served as his Stanford Creative Writing Center application sample. November 10, 2001. Ken Kesey was an American writer in the mid-20th century. His obituary in The New York Times called him the "Pied Piper of the hippie era" and a "magnetic leader" who had been a bridge between the Beat writers of the 1950s and the cultural movement that began in San Francisco in the mid-1960s and spread across the world. University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication, Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, Ken Kesey, Author of 'Cuckoo's Nest,' Who Defined the Psychedelic Era, Dies at 66, "Grateful Dead Family Discography: Spit in the Ocean Bibliography", "J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs and the Church of the SubGenius | Montclair Film", "2006–07 Stats, History, Opponent Info – University of Oregon Wrestling", "Menlo Park Division – VA Palo Alto Health Care System", "Perry Ave, West Menlo Park, CA 94025 to 7940 La Honda Rd, La Honda, CA 94020 – Google Maps", "Acid adventures – review of The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test: From the archive, 2 May 1969", "A Wild Monkey Chase: Do Ken Kesey's LSD-Dosed Apes Still Roam La Honda? [2] An avid reader and filmgoer, the young Kesey took John Wayne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Zane Grey as his role models (later naming a son Zane) and toyed with magic, ventriloquism, and hypnotism. View Article Pages. 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