Ken Kesey's diverse creative works provide a colorful testimony to his talent and myriad interests. His reputation as a writer depends mainly on his first two novels, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) and Sometimes a Great Notion (1964), both of...

Writer Ken Kesey has often said that he would rather live a novel than write one--be a lightning rod rather than a seismograph. A lightning rod is exactly what Kesey has been, attracting not only the admiration of the literary establishment with his...

A writer who came of age on the West Coast during the late 1950s. Ken Kesey has been profoundly influenced by the Beats both in his life and in his work. Strictly speaking, he is not a Beat writer in his early books, although he admired Jack Kerouac...

A writer who came of age on the West Coast during the late 1950s, Ken Kesey has been profoundly influenced by the Beats both in his life and in his work. Strictly speaking, he is not a Beat writer in his early books, although he admired Jack Kerouac...

[This entry was updated by Laura M. Zaidman (University of South Carolina, Sumter) from her update in the Concise Dictionary of American Literary Biography, volume 6, of the entry by Stephen L. Tanner (University of Idaho) in DLB 2: American Novelists...

Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) was a critical success from the beginning. Its popularity, particularly among college students, has grown steadily, with paperback sales soaring into the millions. Its apparent message of contemporary...