Kesey attended the University of Oregon, earning a degree in Speech and Communications, before going on to the prestigious Creative Writing program at Stanford University. In the fall of 1957, shortly before he went to Stanford, Kesey read Jack Kerouac’s newly published novel
On the Road and was particularly impressed by the freewheeling character of Dean Moriarty. While at Stanford, Kesey participated in experiments administered by the psychology department involving psychotropic drugs, including psilocybin, mescaline, and LSD. He lived in a bohemian community in Palo Alto, where he became known for throwing parties in which psychedelic drugs were a prominent feature. While working as an orderly at the psychiatric ward of the local veteran’s hospital, Kesey began to have hallucinations about an American Indian sweeping the floors. This was the inspiration for the character of Bromden, “Chief Broom,” in
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which was his graduate writing project. The novel was published in 1962 and was an immediate critical and popular success. In 1963, Kesey moved to La Honda, California, to begin research for his second novel,
Sometimes a Great Notion (1964), a story about a family of loggers.
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