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Ken Kesey

Personal Information

Born September 17, 1935
Died November 10, 2001 (66 years old)
La Junta, United States
Also known as: Ken Kizi, Ken Kessey
12 books
4.2 (41)
634 readers
Categories

Description

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

Books

Newest First

Sometimes a Great Notion

4.3 (7)
64

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

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

4.1 (29)
530

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

Last go round

4.5 (2)
7

It was around a sagebrush campfire in eastern Oregon that Kesey first heard the tale from his father - about the legendary "last go round" that took place at the original Pendleton Round Up in 1911. Hundreds of riders were competing for the first World Championship Broncbusting title, but it was one special trio of buckeroos that provided the drama: a popular black cowboy, George Fletcher; a Nez Perce Indian cowboy, Jackson Sundown; and a fresh-faced kid from Tennessee name of Johnathan E. Lee Spain. Who would walk away with the prize money and the silver-studded saddle? When the dust cleared, everyone knew they'd witnessed something extraordinary. . Kesey has journeyed back into Oregon history to reclaim this long-remembered moment, beefed up the bare bones of fact, and whipped them into a full-blown rip-snorting Tale of the True West. Sixteen pages of rare Round Up photographs provide graphic testimony of the time. The tiny town of Pendleton is swollen to bursting that memorable weekend and bristling with colorful characters like Buffalo Bill Cody, wrestler Frank "The Cruel Crusher" Gotch, cowgirl Prairie Rose Henderson, and a formidable medicine man named Parson Montanic. From the teepees along the river to the teeming saloons on Main Street, Round Up fever blazes like a prairie fire. This story of love, sweat, and horseflesh is a unique Western, wild and wooly and full of fleas. Let 'er buck!

Sailor Song

4.0 (1)
13

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.

The Further inquiry

0.0 (0)
3

"'The Further inquiry' is Kesey's reexamination of the [1964 cross-country psychedelic] adventure, twenty-five years later, in the form of the 'trial' of Neal Cassady's spirit ... with more than 150 previously unpublished color photos by Ron 'Hassler' Bevrit, additional images from Allen Ginsberg's collection, and verbatim transcripts of key episodes ..."--Jacket.

Little Tricker the squirrel meets Big Double the bear

4.0 (1)
4

Little Tricker the squirrel watches as Big Double the bear terrorizes the forest animals one by one, but then Little Tricker gets revenge.

Kesey's garage sale

0.0 (0)
1

A miscellanea mostly by Kesey, some by his friends.

The Sea Lion

0.0 (0)
1

Although taunted for his small size and bad leg, Eemook proves his worth by saving his tribe from an evil and powerful spirit that comes visiting one stormy night.