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The Life of Ken Kesey
Born in La Junta, Colorado in 1935, Ken Kesey developed his strong connection
to nature in the Pacific Northwest when he moved to Springfield, Oregon
as a young boy. In high school he proved himself an accomplished athlete
and entertainer, his specialties being wrestling, magic and ventriloquism.
Kesey later attended University of Oregon with a degree in Speech and Communications.
There his wrestling performance earned him several awards and a scholarship.
After University of Oregon, Kesey began attending a creative writing program at Stanford University with a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1958. Kesey and wife Faye, his high school sweetheart with whom he had eloped, moved to a neighborhood called Perry Lane, a bohemian area of Palo Alto. Meanwhile, at Stanford Kesey began participating in a series of experiments through the psychology department in 1960, where he was paid to ingest drugs such as psilocybin, mescaline and LSD-25. He began taking some of these drugs home, where they became popular within the bohemian community.
In April of 1961 Kesey began working at the VA hospital, where patients and often on-the-job hallucinogenic experiences inspired to write his best known novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1962. This novel received public acclaim and earned Kesey enough money to move to his next home in La Honda, in the hills of San Mateo County. There he would eventually be followed by family, friends and travelers. The scene at the La Honda estate was said to be quite chaotic.
Kesey finished his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion in 1964. He and friends, now dubbed “The Merry Pranksters,” bought a school bus, painted it with wild colors and crazy patterns, and called it “Further,” their constant next destination. In celebration of Sometimes a Great Notion, the Merry Pranksters took Further on a trip to New York City to see the World’s Fair. The following two years, they carried out a series of projects called the “Acid Tests,” in which they fed LSD to large numbers of people at parties, and gave them different experimental visual and audio stimuli.
After a series of events, including two arrests or possession of marijuana in 1965 and 1966, and the government ban of LSD, Kesey and friends fled to Mexico. He remained there until the fall of 1966, when he grew tired of the “fugitive lifestyle,” and snuck back into the United States.
He was arrested in October of ’66, and served time in the San Mateo County Jail, as well as 6 months in a low security honor camp in the redwood forest. It was there that he created his “Jail Journals”: notebooks filled with artwork and writing. He would later smuggle the majority of these journals out. Once released, Kesey moved back to Pleasant Hill, Oregon (in close proximity to Springfield) to raise his family. He had three children: Jed, Zane and Shannon. In the later part of his life, Kesey worked on several other projects with several members of the Marry Praksters, and published short stories and essays. He died November 10, 2001 of liver cancer.
A
few of Kesey’s many publications:
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1962.
• Sometimes a Great Notion, 1964.
• The Further Inquiry, 1964.
• Kesey’s Garage Sale, 1973.
• Northwest Review of Books, 1977.
• The Day After Superman Died, 1980.
• Demon Box, 1986.
• Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double Bear, 1988.
• Caverns (with U O Levron), 1990.
• The Sea Lion, 1991.
• Sailor Song, 1992.
• Last Go Round (with Ken Babbs), 1994.
• Last Round Up, 1994.
• The Merry Pranksters, 1999.
Kesey Website Links:
K-zey
Productions:
“Official Ken Kesey Web Site run by Zane Kesey”
www.key-z.com
Ken’s Memorial Service
November 13, 2001. Hosted by Ken Kesey
www.intrepidtrips.com/kesey/index.html
“Farewell to Ken”
A brief synopsis of the history of The Merry Pranksters!! and the acid tests
and how it all came to be! http://www.pooterland.com/index2/looking_glass/merry_pranksters/merry_pranksters.html
The
Merry Pranksters!
Another fun site with lots of pictures and links. www.univie.ac.at/Anglistik/easyrider/data/KeseyPrs.htm