Ken Kesey
Born September 17, 1935
La Junta, Colorado
Died November 10, 2001
Eugene, Oregon
Author and prankster
Ken Kesey was one of the central figures in the "psychedelic sixties," a decade when various people, including many college students, experimented with mind-altering drugs, such as LSD. Kesey was at the forefront of the cultural explosion in the late 1960s that celebrated joyful expressiveness, the rejection of authority, loud rock music, and drug use. As a cultural figure, Kesey is renowned as the leader of the Merry Pranksters, a ragtag group representing the rowdy, fun-loving, anti-authoritarian nature of the psychedelic era. Their epic cross-country bus trip was chronicled by author Tom Wolfe in The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (1968). As a novelist, Kesey is best known for two works: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) and Sometimes a Great Notion (1964). Kesey remained a hero to countercultural rebels—those people who reject the values and behaviors of the majority—until his death in 2001.
All-American Youth
Kesey's status as a cultural rebel was in contrast to his wholesome upbringing. He was born Ken Elton Kesey on September17, 1935, the older of two sons born to Fred and Geneva Kesey. Both of his parents came from farming and ranching families.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 2,752 words (approx. 9 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Kesey, Ken Access Pass.
