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Ken Kesey

File:Ken_Kesey_(One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo's_Nest_photo).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ244390· pop 69· linked from 434 articles

Also known as Kenneth Kesey, Kenneth Elton Kesey, Ken Elton Kesey, Ken E. Kesey, O. U. Levon

American novelist (1935–2001)

OverviewAI-generated

Ken Kesey was an American male author who lived from September 17, 1935, to November 10, 2001. He is associated with the psychedelic and American music genres. His bibliography includes 54 works, among which are *One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest*, *Sometimes a Great Notion*, and *How to Solve the Problem of Pollution*. Other listed titles include *Пролетая над гнездом кукушки* and *Vol au-dessus d'un nid de coucou*.

Kesey’s writings have been referenced by 434 other encyclopedia articles. His official website is intrepidtrips.com.

Synthesized by Vinony from 20 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Crossref, Wikiquote, MusicBrainz, Open Library, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1935-09-17
Died
2001-11-10
Works
54

Top works

  • One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest (SparkNotes Literature Guide)
  • Пролетая над гнездом кукушки
  • How to Solve the Problem of Pollution
  • Sometimes a Great Notion
  • Vol au-dessus d'un nid de coucou

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United States
Active from
1935-09-17
Active to
2001-11-10

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
1,142
Total plays
18,752

Tags

psychedelicamerican

Ken Kesey Sep 17, 1935 - Nov 10, 2001 Summary Ken Kesey was a writer, born in La Junta, Colorado. He earned a degree in journalism from the University of Oregon in 1957 and then studied creative writing at Stanford in the late 50s. While at Stanford he tried hallucinogens for the first time after volunteering for a government research program at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Menlo Park, CA. As part of the program, Kesey was given LSD, psilocybin, mescaline and AMT. <a href="https://www

via Last.fm · Ken Kesey

Quotes

  • The Grateful Dead are faster than light drive.
  • This is just shit. It's happening. No blame. Happening and on the rise it would appear. What can we do to delay it? Probably zilch. To stop it? Likely less. But to survive it? Now that sounds more promising. There is evidence of bad shit having been survived before. Ancient Advice Left in cave by Wise French Caveman: "When Bigbad Shit come, no run scream hide. Try paint picture of it on wall. Drum to it. Sing to it. Dance to it. This give you handle on it." So Twister is my try.
  • God... your book is beautiful!
  • They're out there. Black boys in white suits up before me to commit sex acts in the hall and get it mopped up before I can catch them.
  • It's still hard for me to have a clear mind thinking on it. But it's the truth even if it didn't happen.
  • Damn, what a sorry-looking outfit. You boys don't look so crazy to me.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Ken
Gender
male
Citizenship
United States
Place of birth
La Junta
Languages spoken
English language
Official website
www.intrepidtrips.com
Image
Ken Kesey in Pasadena in 1974 from The Big T 1974 (page 45 crop).jpg
Residence
Springfield
Show 10 more facts
Commons category
Ken Kesey
date of birth
1935-09-17
date of death
2001-11-10
cause of death
liver cancer
manner of death
natural causes
influenced by
William Faulkner
name in native language
Ken Kesey
owner of
Further
on focus list of Wikimedia project
Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
writing language
English language
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~22 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Kenneth Elton Kesey (/ˈkiːzi/; September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American novelist, essayist, and countercultural figure. He considered himself a link between the Beat Generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s.

Kesey was born in La Junta, Colorado, and grew up in Springfield, Oregon, graduating from the University of Oregon in 1957. He began writing One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1960 after completing a graduate fellowship in creative writing at Stanford University; the novel was an immediate commercial and critical success when published two years later. During this period, Kesey was used by the CIA (supposedly without his knowledge) in the Project MKULTRA involving hallucinogenic drugs (including mescaline and LSD), which was done to try to make people insane to put them under the control of interrogators.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Ken Kesey” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.