KEN KESEYFor many commentators, writer Ken Kesey who died on 10 November, 2001, aged 66, was the link between the beat generation and the hippie movement.In the 1960s Mr Kesey traversed America in an old school bus with other counter-culture luminaries such as Neal Cassady and Allen Ginsberg, often under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs.The psychedelic concerts or “happenings” that the so-called “Merry Pranksters” performed along the way helped to set the foundations of what would become the hippie movement.Mr Kesey will forever be remembered as the author of the seminal novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest which was made into an Oscar-winning film starring Jack Nicholson.Kenneth Elton Kesey was born on 17 September, 1935, in La Junta, Colorado. The family soon moved to Eugene, Oregon, where Kesey spent his early years hunting, fishing and swimming.After graduating from Oregon’s School of Journalism with a degree in speech and communication in 1957, he enrolled in the creative writing programme at Stanford University the following year.It was at Stanford in 1959 that Mr Kesey volunteered to take part in a study at Menlo Park Veterans Hospital on the effects of psychotropic drugs particularly LSD.The notes that Mr Kesey made during the course of these experiments together with his experiences as a volunteer at the hospital formed the basis of his 1962 novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The book was an immediate hit and its success allowed him to move to the mountains south of San Francisco. Here he began to throw huge parties involving music, psychedelic special effects and LSD.Following the publication of his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion, in 1964 Mr Kesey embarked on a cross-country road trip in a school bus with a group of friends known as “The Merry Pranksters.”With beatnik icon Neal Cassady at the wheel, the chaotic trip became legendary and took in visits to Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary. It was later chronicled in Tome Wolfe’s book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Trip.Mr Kesey was arrested for possession of marijuana in 1966 and faked his own suicide in an attempt to fool the police. He fled to Mexico in the back of a friend’s car but on his return to the United States was arrested and sent to jail for five months.On his release, he moved back to the family home, a farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, where he lived peacefully with his family for the rest of his life. He continued to write, toured occasionally and made personal appearances at rock concerts and festivals.Mr Kesey married his childhood sweetheart Faye Haxby after he graduated from High School. Together they had three children – Jed, Zane and Shannon – and he had another child, Sunshine, in 1966 with fellow “Prankster” Carolyn Adams.His position at the heart of the counter-culture movement can not be underestimated. He was one of the true cultural and literary icons of the age and remains an inspiration to a generation.A thousand mourners attended his funeral.
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