(Full name Ken Elton Kesey) American novelist and nonfiction writer.
Kesey became acquainted with the Beat Generation during the 1950s, when he was a teenager in California. He later cited Beat writers Jack Kerouac, John Clellon Holmes, and William S. Burroughs as having a profound influence on his writing style. His most famous work, the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962), was inspired by his stint as a night attendant in the psychiatric ward of a California hospital. In that work, a mental hospital serves as a metaphor for the oppressive and mechanized nature of modern society. During the 1960s, Kesey’s experiences as part of the Merry Pranksters—a group that included Beat Generation notable Neal Cassady, among others—informed his approach to his writing as well as his life-style.
Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and moved to a farm in Springfield, Oregon, in 1946. His family was religious, and Kesey received Bible instruction from an early age. In high school he was a champion wrestler and voted “most likely to succeed.” After graduating, he tried his hand in Hollywood as an actor and eloped with his high school sweetheart, Faye Haxby, with whom he had three children.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 17,346 words (approx. 58 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Ken Kesey Access Pass.
