American actor and novelist who worked at various times as a logger, a mental-hospital attendant, a farmer and musician in a band. He became famous for writing “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in 1962, which was made into a film in 1975. The film starred Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, was produced by Michael Douglas and directed by Miloš Forman. He won the Robert Kirsch Award given by the Los Angeles Times in 1991 for his body of work.
He attended the University of Oregon, receiving a BA in 1957 and going on to study writing at Stanford, 1958-59. He was on the wrestling team. Kesey volunteered for drug experiments run by the government prior to the time that Timothy Leary started his experiments in psychedelics. His job as a psychiatric attendant for the Veteran’s Administration Hospital in Menlo Park, CA in 1961 provided background for his most famous work, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” In 1962 Kesey sold the movie rights for $28,000. The film won five Oscars and reportedly made $50 million in gross earnings.
He was an inspiration for many young people. With an ear for dialog and the ability to create characters that live on the page, all of his works are about prisoners, some who realize their position and rail against it, others who are just doing their time. An old fashioned kind of writer, Kesey is a moral critic. His second novel “Sometimes a Great Notion” was published in 1964. Famous for being famous, he is not taken very seriously and finds it difficult to observe people while being observed.
A major counter culture figure in the 1960’s, he and his band, The Merry Pranksters, made a cross-country drug-fueled trip in a psychedelic painted bus called “Further” that was chronicled by Tom Wolfe in his book “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.” This bus may have inspired The Who’s “Magic Bus” and the Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour.” The Smithsonian Institution has asked several times that the bus be donated, but it is still on the road. Described as “going a little nuts and then disappearing,” after being arrested on marijuana charges, Kesey took off to Mexico. He later spent some months in jail.
In 1965 he purchased a farm in Pleasant Hill, Oregon, converting the barn to living quarters. Many of the outbuildings on the farm were built by The Merry Pranksters.
Kesey married his high school sweetheart, Faye, and they had four children. He has always been close to family. His son Jed, who died on a University of Oregon wrestling team trip, is buried on the farm.
Kesey was diagnosed with diabetes in 1992. He suffered a stroke 23 September 1997 after an afternoon nap at his home in Pleasant Hill from which he recovered but which affected his right arm.
Kesey died on 10 November 2001, two weeks after cancer surgery to remove 40% of his liver, Grants Pass, OR.
Link to Wikipedia biography