One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest

11 Pages 2835 Words

Biographical Data
Ken Kesey was born on September 17, 1935 in La Junta, Colorado. Ken Kesey is world renowned for his best-selling novel, "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest". At an early age, Kesey had a love for Christian fables as well as the Christian ethical system. Although he had a love for these fables, Kesey never wrote anything or published anything till well after his high school career. In High School he was a champion wrestler setting long-standing state records in Oregon. Unlike most "normal" authors, Kesey always had a love for the "wild" side. He would always be doing crazy things and going to parties. While at Stanford, he was in an experience involving chemicals at the psychology department to earn extra money. Among these chemicals were psilocybin, mescaline, and “LSD” which is found in the drug, acid. This experience altered Kesey personally and professionally causing him to not be what he used to be, but instead a crazy and weird sort of individual. He became friends with a group of people that would later call themselves, the Merry Pranksters. Among these pranksters there were famous people like Jack Kerouac, and Neal Cassady. They bought a bus and all went on a trip to the World's Fair in New York. They recorded most of the trip and showed these clips to drugged up audiences at their parties. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters became known for their Acid tests as well as their extensive use of LSD and other drugs. Thomas Wolfe wrote a book about the merry pranksters called The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. Kesey and the Merry Pranksters fled to Mexico after their favorite drug, LSD, was made illegal. When they returned to the United States for a final performance of their band, "Warlocks", or "Grateful Dead", Kesey was arrested on a marijuana charge. After serving his time in Jail, Kesey decided to move to a farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon to raise his family and try to forget his crazy past. Kesey, being a big par...