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Sep 17, 1935 — Nov 10, 2001· 66 yrs

UNITED STATES AUTHOR · FICTION · GENERAL

Ken Kesey

Also known as: Ken Kizi, Ken Kessey

12
BOOKS
4.2
AVG RATING (41)
8
READERS

KEN KESEY was born in La Junta, Colorado, but his family later moved to Springfield, Oregon, where he attended public schools, and later the University of Oregon at Eugene. He has received the Woodrow Wilson scholarship to Stanford University and a Saxton Fellowship, and won the Fred Lowe Scholarship awarded to the outstanding wrestler in the Northwest. Mr. Kesey was king of the Merry Pranksters, a group which traveled the West Coast staging happenings; as a leader of this group, Mr. Kesey appeared as subject and star in the bestseller, THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST, by Tom Wolfe. At present he is "scratching his athlete's foot on his farm in Oregon, watching his kids and blueberries grow." Photo: By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link

La Junta, United States
Wikipedia

part 1 They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them. They're mopping when I come out the dorm, all three of them sulky and hating everything, the time of day, the place they're at here, the people they got to work around. When they hate like this, better if they don't see me. I creep along me wall quiet as dust in my canvas shoes, but they got special sensitive equipment detects my fear and they all look up, all three at once, eyes glittering out of the black faces like the hard glitter of radio tubes out of the back of an old radio. "Here's the Chief. The soo-pah Chief, fellas. Ol' Chief Broom. Here you go, Chief Broom...." Stick a mop in my hand and motion to the spot they aim for me to clean today, and I go. One swats the backs of my legs with a broom handle to hurry me past. "Haw, you look at 'im shag it? Big enough to eat apples off my head an' he mine me like a baby."

— from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 2005

Most acclaimed

#1

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

2005

4.1 (29)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a novel written by Ken Kesey. Set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of institutional processes and the human mind; including a critique of psychiatry, and a tribute to individualistic principles

#2

Sailor Song

1992

4.0 (1)

After writing two books in the early 1960s, both now established as American classics, Ken Kesey abandoned the novel in its established form. Over the past twenty-five years he has written many shorter pieces, but only now, with Sailor Song, brings his considerable powers once again to bear on a full-scale undertaking, giving us a unique and powerful novel about America. Set in the near future, the story takes us to the Alaskan village of Kuinak, a rundown fishing community of Deaps (Descendants of Early Aboriginal Peoples) and Lower Forty-eight refugees perched on the Western Edge of history. It's a scene rich with characters, like Alice the Angry Aleut, Ike Sallas (known as "the Bakatcha Bandit" during the environmental wars of the nineties), the town's indispensable "scoot" runner Billy the Squid, and the Loyal Order of Underdogs, who meet monthly for the Full Moon Howl. Into their peculiar midst sails a mighty ship of last hopes, loaded to the gunwales with a big-bucks Hollywood film company. This famous studio/yacht has come north to film a classic children's book, The Sea Lion. Unscripted transformations abound as the project stirs a new mix into the community, including a tribe brought down from the remote north. Sailor Song is an epic novel that revolves around the question: Does love make any sense at the end of the world? It's about things that endure and come around again - back at you, and back to you.

#3

Sometimes a Great Notion

2006

4.3 (7)

Sometimes a Great notion is a book about about the Stamper family. A tough crew who keeps getting pushed west by the youngest Stamper's whim after looking out the window. Finally they can not go any further west than a raging river on Oregon coast. Hank and the Father run a Logging operation against all odds to unionize Great characters Biggie Newton and Finally the youngest son Leland returns after his drug lab exploded. Hank and Leland fight over a Woman and Leland grows up

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